The Final Stanza
The final verse of Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach is the subject of the excerpt. The complete poem is founded on the evil elements present in the world, such as the meaninglessness of faith and love. the trouble-filled universe in all its manifestations. The main character seeks out his love in the final stanza in the hopes of finding the serenity he has been yearning for. Maybe love can give this hopeless planet a little bit of hope. In order to evaluate the sentiments and their meanings, this paper will focus on the final stanza. It will be based on a line-by-line analysis in order to comprehend the crucial points.
The Desperation of Love
In the first two line of this stanza, the narrator speaks intimately, perhaps to imply that he depended on his love to overcome the terrifying aspects of the world. The sentiments “love, let us be true,” are spoken in a passionate tone to illustrate the desperation of the speaker. He hoped to cleave to this love in order to avoid the detrimental impacts of the world. Evidently, love is a key word in this poem and is repeated severally in this extract to give the poem its meaning. After imploring love to be true, the speaker narrows it down by stating “to one another.” In this sentiment, the narrator may be implying that expressing love to the world could be close to inevitable; hence, restricting it to one another. In the next two lines the speaker portrays the world as a “land of dreams, so various…” in a means to show how the world is expansive. In other words, the world is full of different aspects including opportunities. Being a land of dreams has both positive and negative aspects i.e. it can be both wonderful and troublesome. From this illustration, it is evident that the term “world” is significant in giving meaning to this poem. The poem is also centered on the sentiment “land of dreams” to portray the world and also bring meaning to the writing.
A Chaotic World
The speaker continues to state that the world has “neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.” These sentiments echo the previous lines perceiving the world as a land of dreams. Evidently, the world is in chaos, and the speaker does not believe it can offer all the good dreams. When the world lacks love, joy, or peace, then it is unlivable. The narrator does not see any meaningful aspect of the world. This illustrated further by the simile “as on a darkling plain.” It is a gloomy state, yet it rightly typifies the modern world in which we live in. In this section, the darkling plain is a crucial sentiment that the narrator uses to bring meaning to this poem as it is based on the negative aspects of the world.
A Fighting World
The simile is further expounded in the last two lines as the narrator states that they are “swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight.” People are confused as they struggle to run away from the ongoing battles. The narrator depicts the world as a battlefield where fighters battle during the night. The term “night” may be implying that the fighters, in this case, cannot identify one another. In that regard, they kill both friends and foes to inflict pain on each other. The word night is, therefore, essential in illustrating the fighting world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this poem is meant to demonstrate the evil aspects of the world that deprive people happiness, peace, and love. It is a battleground where the friends and enemies kill one another thus indicating its emptiness. The narrator utilizes words such as night, love, land of dreams, darkling plain, and the world in this stanza to bring meaning to the entire poem.
