‘Dover Beach’ and ‘When You are Old’ as Expressions of Love Essay Example

‘Dover Beach’ and ‘When You are Old’ as Expressions of Love Essay Poetic themes range from love and beauty to war, death and certainly, Nature but it is the masterstroke of personal experience embellished with rhetorical devices that make few poetic creations stand out in the crowd. Two such poems reflecting on the meaning of Love in the context of the poets’ personal life are Matthew Arnold’s â€Å"Dover Beach† and William Butler Yeats’ â€Å"When You are Old†. One poet reveres his union with his beloved in the midst of chaos and uncertainties of the world while the other reflects on his unrequited love and imagines the remorse his beloved would feel in her old age at the rejection of her one and only true love.In the Victorian period, the Christian world with its theological dictates was shaken to the core by the radical scientific postulates. It is at this juncture the poet Matthew Arnold communicates his faith in the power of Love and personal conflict of belief versus doubt in his poem ‘Dover Beach†™. It is a reflection of the physical surroundings of the poet imbued with the deeper analysis of the loss of the concrete familiar structure of faith and a plea to his beloved to remain true to love, which he believed was the ultimate recourse for all humanity in future.Delving into the personal history of the poet, Arnold married Fanny LucyWightman at Dover, despite her father’s disapproval. Arnold wrote `Dover Beach` portraying his own experience as a lover torn between love and war.The poem opens with a beguiling simplicity in the lucid depiction of the quiet sea-side night, radiant with the silvery moon-shine. It is a perfect honeymoon setting for the newly weds. There is a deliberate sense of slowing of time, as the poet gazes at the sparkling image of Dover Beach laid bare in the night, mirrored in the luminosity of the ‘fair’ moon as Arnold writes:The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the Straits;(‘Dover Beach’ l ines1-3)The opening lines ease the reader into a state of tranquil absorption of the natural beauty of the setting, yet it is Arnold’s way of beckoning his beloved into the charmed circle of peace that he witnesses. In his words: â€Å"Come to the window, sweet is the night air! (6), he invites his beloved wife to partake the magnificence of the scene, but on a deeper level, he helps the reader position himself at Arnold’s side to participate in the night’s beauty. There is an unmistakable sense of calm in his words, portending the storm of the chaos and anarchy prevalent in the present world which torments the poet even in the serene atmosphere of the moon-washed beach. The picturesque imagery of the opening lines mirror the physical relief of the cliffs, the continuous murmur of the waters and the isolation of the place in the moon-lit night contributing to Arnold’s deep philosophical reflections on the situation of the world, far away from the noise a nd fret of human crowd.The first aberrant note in the harmony of the seascape, a subtle sensory shift in image, is the â€Å"grating roar† (9) as the waves retreat from their progress, flinging the pebbles on the shore. This continual action, this harsh sound jars the ambience, unsettling it, bringing a transformation in the mood of the poem. The â€Å"grating roar† is a paradox as well as hyperbolic in rhetorical structure. The Sea is a continued metaphor throughout the poem. The repetitive cycle of the waves washing the shoreline, â€Å"Begin, and cease, and then again begin† (12) has a mournful sound to it, which to the poet’s sensitive perception appears to be the herald of the eternal note of melancholy. The silence is thus permeated by the rhythm of the sea, noted by the clever use of a combination of run-on and end-stopped lines in the first stanza. The poem shifts from the literal portrayal of Nature to a deep reflection on the eternal truth of li fe.Arnold’s fascination with the classic greats is expressed in his reference to Sophocles and his play Antigone with the image of the ancient scholar on the shores of the Aegean. His Hellenistic preoccupation coupled with the sensuous word-picture heightens the timeless dilemma of our lives – the reality of eternal sadness beneath the surface of the bliss and beauty in the world. This idea is reiterated later in the poet’s outcry:for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;(lines 30-34)Arnold skillfully employs the rhetoric device of anaphora (‘So various, so beautiful, so new’; ‘nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain’) for greater emphasis.Throughout the poem, the images used are subtle indications of the human world bereft of its spiritual support. The lights flicke ring on the shoreline of France, the erosive nature of the white chalkstone cliffs, the moon-blanched night, the conflict of the waves with the pebbles denote the attrition and assault of the human religious conviction in vitriolic contact with the daunting discoveries of science in the Victorian society. The poet launches his tirade against the corrosion of human faith, the comfort and security of the ‘girdle’ of belief and trust in the higher authority of God slowly fading from human lives. The â€Å"Sea of faith† had been the protective girdle wrapping the earth in its comfort, reassuring souls of the fruits of faith and goodness which had had been forcibly torn apart. The metaphor of the ‘girdle’ and its absence expresses the state of man, left in isolation, abjection and utter misery with no hope of restoration and rehabilitation.In this hopeless vision of the human world, the poet earnestly voices the need for a pillar of support, an anchorage for the sea-swept human souls in the sea of mistrust and fear. Arnold reinstates his belief and faith with the strong support of Love in human relationship. He calls upon his beloved to remain true and pledge loyalty to each other, with the conviction that the one true bond would mitigate the pain and darkness of the present human condition. Thus for Arnold, Love has a high pedestal of importance and reverence at par with one’s worship of God.Through deft use of rhetoric and picturesque words, the poem comes to life, with its message of the anchorage of Love in the world bereft of faith, struggling in confusion, a scene of chaos and anarchy. Arnold employs alliterative lines such as ‘to-night’ and ‘tide’; ‘full’ and ‘fair’ (Lines 1-2). Metaphors are skillfully weaved into the poem to enrich its inner meaning: the ‘Sea of Faith’ implies the comparison of the human spiritual belief with the waters enveloping the e arth’s surface. Again, the famous simile of the Battle of Epipolae imbues the poem with a depth of perception as well as a classical look-back for better understanding of the miserable war-torn state of humankind.Unlike Arnold who celebrated the union of his love at Dover Beach, Yeats is a poet suffering rejection at the hands of his Irish beloved, Maud Gonne, and it is this unrequited love which compels him to craft the poem â€Å"When You Are Old†. Interestingly, while Arnold universalizes the concept of Love as a pillar of support for humanity, Yeats personifies Love in the poem, depicting the lady in question as an old woman nodding near the warmth of a fire, attempting to read a book, recalling in the corridors of her memories the numerous ‘false’ suitors and the one true love which she cast off.The opening line â€Å"When you are old and grey and full of sleep† suggests the image of impending death. Sleep is the eternal rest at the end of old age. There is a unique hypnotic quality in the images provoked with the use of polysyndeton (‘old and grey and full†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢). The beloved, now old, would turn the pages of her book and reminisce the bygone days of youth and beauty. Her grace and charm had attracted many a lover to her side, but Yeats underlines the difference between his love and the admiration of the others with repetitive emphasis on the word ‘love’:How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true,But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face; (p. 829)Like Arnold, Yeats employs alliteration as seen in ‘glad grace’ which contributes to the rhythm of the poem. Again, the oxymoronic ‘false or true’ implies the artificiality of the love petition of the other suitors.The most significant line is of Love, â€Å"Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled.† (p.829) is a typical personificati on of Love, which he wished to offer the lady only to be sadly rebuffed. â€Å"But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you† (p.829). The metaphorical figure of ‘pilgrim soul’ reveals her freedom-loving nature: her soul is likened to a pilgrim set out to wander in search of the absolute truth. Thus the poet’s love went beyond the surface beauty into the depths of her soul, proving the purity and profundity of his true emotions for her.The imagery in this poem sets the scene and the mood. The cozy comfort of the fireside, the soft shadows of her eyes indicates age and a deeper perception, the sorrows etched in the lines of her face denoting the ups and downs of life, the sad murmur of the Love ‘fled’. The transformation from the description of the fireside scene to the vast spaces of the mountainous heights where the love has gone is noteworthy. From the concrete image of the lady kneeling at the glowing bars to the elusive image of unrequited Lov e fleeing into the extensive spaces of Nature (here, the mountains are referred to) Yeats’ poem is full of this to and fro movement from concrete to abstract, as also seen in the lady reading the book then transported into her dreams and reminiscences. Again, ‘hid his face amid the crowd of stars’ is an abstract image, indicating the irreparable loss of the love she now missed.Both poets use adroit craftsmanship in structuring their deeply personal philosophical reflections on the significance of love in their lives. Thus the two expressive pieces of love poetry-   Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’ and Yeats’ ‘When You are Old’ are singular creations among the volumes of literary works of these giants of English Literature.

Essay on Language Variation

Essay on Language Variation Essay on Language Variation Introduction The following conversation is between Andy an American businessman doing business in London and Carter a British native based in London. The two men are based in the insurance industry. The conversation will be used to differentiate between the American and British language. The readers of the conversation will be in a position to understand various language components. The idea behind the conversation is to understand the importance of linguistic variations. Andy: what is the main factor affecting insurance business in the United Kingdom? Carter: The market viability determines the level of insurance penetration. This is manifested by the manner in which the market operates in the long run. A good example is a smaller and larger market size. A smaller market segment implies that the insurance business will not thrive to the maximum. Insurance is all about numbers and understanding how to make adjustments within the course of operations. It should be noted that other factors determine the penetration mechanism. This is an indication that a bigger market size would be better suited to encourage the growth of insurance. Andy: There is a lot of stuff going on within the insurance sector in the United Kingdom. From my point of view, I think the insurance industry in the United Kingdom is undergoing a different phase as compared to the American market. It is clear that the UK market is undergoing a series of changes aimed at making the industry viable. This is evidenced by the manner in which the industry is undergoing challenges. Unlike the American market, the British market is still on the phase of adapting to the changing environment. This means that the level of insurance penetration is minimal as compared to the situation in the United States. Carter: A rough analysis of the American market indicates that the American market is ahead of the British market. As mentioned in the previous section, the American market is stable and more developed as compared to the British market. The American market has undergone numerous developmental phases before the British market. This implies that the American market has integrated the ideals of a stable industry. The American market has consolidated important market components. This has consequently led to a situation where the market dimension of the American market is stable and comprehensive as compared to the British market. Andy: As an operator in the insurance industry, I must admit that the insurance industry in the United States operates on a different platform as compared to the situation in Britain. The American insurance industry is composed of regulatory frameworks and other market components which consolidate the sector. Time and again, the American market has been involved in turbulent times. This implies that the sector has developed after years of repair. The above explanation is an indication that the American market is miles ahead of the British market. The British market has to develop numerous tools required for operation before reaching the level attained by the American market. Carter: I support the assertion that the American market is consolidated as compared to the British market. The British market is less developed as compared to the American market. The American market has been developed after years of making changes. The changes made in the American insurance sector have been instrumental in terms of leveraging the market. This was a step in the right direction. Linguistic variables The linguistic variables used in the conversation have been instrumental in terms of differentiating between the British and American language. From the conversation, it is clear that variables are vital in terms of determining various components of a given language. The approach used in presenting the linguistic variables has gone a long way in terms of giving each language the required consolidation. The linguistic approach used in both approaches is manifested by the manner in which words have been interchanged. It should be noted that the American and British language differ in meaning and pronunciation. The pronunciation used in the British language is different as compared to pronunciation in the American accent. The extent of pronunciation is explained from the perspective of vowels used. For example, a word with the same meaning could be used in the American and British accent. In the paper, the pronunciation could be similar, but the difference is noted when it comes to pronunciation. The mode of pronunciation is evident between the conversation of Andy and Carter. Carter is fond of using British accent in words and explanation. The mode of using the English language is based on the environment in which the person lives. The conversation between Andy and Carter is an indication that the environment determines the language selection of a person. The environmental aspect has affected the linguistic tone used by Andy and Carter. From the conversation, it is crystal clear that vowels determine the language aptitude adopted by an individual. The vowel variation has played an important role in determining the language selection used by both speakers. It should be noted that vowels have played a major role in terms of differentiating between the American and English language. From an expertise point of view, vowel variation speaks volumes about the language tone used. In addition, the language tone is dependent on the manner in which vowels are arranged. Lexicons The lexical arrangement used in the British and American accent is another component that can be used for analysis. The lexicon approach used in the British accent is advanced as compared to the American accent. The American accent is composed of simple lexical arrangements as compared to the British accent. The British accent has more lexical arrangements. They are intertwined with vowels. The mixture of lexicons and vowels is the main distinguishing aspect between the American and English accent. Lexicons like vowels determine the extent of tone variation. The tone variation attained from lexicons is an important component of language selection. Vowels The vowel arrangement has a way with determining the language variation used. A good example is the American and British language. The vowel arrangement used in English is different as compared to vowel arrangement in the American accent. The American accent has a different vowel arrangement as compared to the British accent. For example, the British accent has a mixture of vowels within a sentence. The British accent has a mixture of vowels. The vowel mixture within the British language has been phenomenal. As mentioned in the previous section, the vowel variation in a sentence determines the overall meaning. This is to mean that vowel variation creates a difference in language selection. The language selection is determined by vowels. If you need a professional paper writing service to order custom essays online from, visit our company .