Study Sheet Dover Beach Mathew Arnold 1. Stanza 1 is straightforward description of a SCENE. It also establishes a mood. o Briefly, what s the scene? o What is the mood? Refer to two things which create the mood. 2. The first stanza also sets up viewpoint and voice in the poem. What indicates that the voice is not directed straight at the reader? Can you suggest an effect of this adjustment of our awareness, as readers, of the voice in the poem? 3. Stanza two introduces the idea of the scene provoking a thought. What s the thought a similar scene provoked in the past? (You could also look up Sophocles) 4. Stanza 3 introduces the metaphor and central idea (or thought ) of the poem. o What, literally, is the sea of faith referred to here? o Now quote two or three details from stanza 3 which depict desolation or loss or sadness. BACKGROUND NOTE: it s important to know and think about what might have caused anxiety and a sense of crisis in religious belief during the mid 19th Century. 5. The last stanza reaches a sort of conclusion or decision about how to act or respond to the problem of faith. o What is that response? o Do you find the ending of the poem consoling or despairing? Explain COMPARE: o The mood and attitude to faith in God s Grandeur Hopkins o The Mood of either To a Skylark or Kubla Khan. o Can you detect a sombreness about life in To the Skylark which might link it to the sentiment in Dover Beach? See next page for a Comment on form: 1
COMMENT ON FORM IN DOVER BEACH People often find it hardest to talk and write about the effect of rhythm in the form and language of a poem, especially as it s important to link form to the meaning or mood of a poem. Here are some suggestions about Dover Beach. The poem s lines are in iambic rhythm throughout. This gives a regularity and pattern running through the 4 stanzas. There are variations of rhythm within this underlying pattern. Lines vary in length, between 10, 8 and 6 syllables. There is a rhyme scheme which is present throughout but is really most noticeable in the closing lines. Again this rhyme pattern contributes to an underlying regularity in the sound pattern of the poem. The regular pattern and the variations in rhythm relate to the meaning and subject of the poem. The mood and subject matter are solemn and thoughtful. It s appropriate, therefore, that there is a solemn regular (tidal?) rhythm to the lines. This mimics or suggests, the endless back and forth movement of the waves on the shore: see that slow, tidal pattern in lines 9, 10 and 11: Listen! You hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling At their return, up the high strand* *beach These are 8,10,8 syllables, carefully arranged, so they act out the movement described in the words. You can see the same rhythmic effect repeated (with a variation on the syllable pattern) (6, 10,6) later in the poem, in lines 24, 25, 26: But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating to the breath Form and Stanza pattern The arrangement of lines into stanzas (verses) follows the progress and development of scene and ideas in the poem. In other words, there isn t a given verse length or pattern the poet works to: the poem follows the thought and feeling being expressed. The end is made definite and emphatic, though. Look at how rhyme is made more noticeable and insistent in the last stanza, especially in the last four lines. What feeling in those last four lines do the rhymes help to emphasise at the end of the poem? 2
God s Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins PRE-READING For each of the following, what pictures or meanings come into your mind? Brainstorm each word or phrase: Bleared and smeared broods warm breast charged Ooze deep down things flame out bright wings Study Questions 1. Before you worry too much about meaning just be aware that there is tremendous energy in the language of the poem. Partly this comes from Hopkins choice of verbs and his creation of sound effects. o List at least six energetic verbs from the poem o Find a sound effect created by rhyme; find another created by alliteration 2. The poem is a sonnet. This is a traditional form, but the poem is radical and challenging in its use of words and sound. The Petrarchan form of the sonnet is used. A cluster of 8 lines (the octet); then 6 lines (the sestet) which develop and complete the ideas and effects. Look at the octet, which Hopkins helpfully separates out for us. Sum up in a couple of sentences (your own words) the contrast between God and Man described in these 8 lines. 3. Look at the repetition in lines 5 and 6? Explain how this is dramatic acting out of the meaning here, rather than just pointless, redundant repetition. 4. Part of the speed and energy comes from the unusual number of single syllable words clustered together (short sounds, fast to say). Find and quote a line of 10 syllables made up of 10 words. 5. When we get to the sestet (the last six lines) Hopkins offers REASSURANCE in a quick simple line. Which line? What does it mean (explain in one or two sentences only)? 6. Faith in Nature; faith in God. Explain briefly how both faiths are expressed in this sonnet. 7. MUSIC: analyse the last four lines of the poem to bring out the musical qualities of Hopkins poetry. Point to at least two examples in the lines. COMPARE o God s Grandeur and On Westminster Bridge: ideas and use of Sonnet form o Contrast ideas on faith in God s Grandeur and Dover Beach. 3
God s Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins A poem of Praise Two examples to support this statement Your comments A poem with warning An emotional and fervent poem 4
Ulysses, by Tennyson AS Poetry Anthology This is another monologue. This time it is written in blank verse. It is spoken (in old age) by the Greek hero of the Trojan wars, Ulysses, otherwise known as Odysseus. The ten years war in Troy is the subject of Homer s ancient epic poem, The Illiad. Odysseus (or Ulysses) endures ten further years of adventure and privation in his voyage home from Troy to his kingdom of Ithaca. This is the other great epic poem by Homer, The Odyssey. In Tennyson s poem, here, the old King, bored with peace and with being in one place, yearns for another, last voyage and more epic adventure. The key points about subject matter to reflect upon are: What does Ulysses have to say about Old age About travel The poem is all in blank verse, of the kind you normally find in plays like those of Shakespeare. As such, there are no stanzas. However, as in prose, there are paragraph divisions in the writing (blank verse paragraphs) to indicate development of the subject matter. There are THREE verse paragraphs. For each paragraph, write a topic sentence or two to indicate the main subject matter of the paragraph. Now have a look at Tennyson s use of BLANK VERSE. The poem is a good opportunity to understand VERSE. Here, it is blank verse (which simply means no rhymes) written in 10 syllable lines. Each line has 5 beats, almost always in an iambic rhythm pattern: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed (beat) syllable 5 in each line. For example: That hoard and sleep, and feed, and know not me. (line 9) underlinings indicate a stress Find FOUR LINES (from different places in the poem) which have both 10 syllables and 5 beats. Copy and mark the beats with underlinings. Now find any TWO lines where one of the five beats occurs on the FIRST syllable of the line. Quote and mark. This occurs in blank verse to give variety to the rhythm and to make the unnatural patterning of the verse fit more naturally with ordinary speech rhythm. The overall effect should be something which sounds like a speaking voice, while also being heightened and made more patterned and memorable than ordinary speech. COMPARE: My Last Duchess monologue Prufrock frustration/aging. 5