In 2016, the world received Trump and from then on the “world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams… Hath really neither joy nor love, nor light.” I believe Matthew Arnold has a piece that perfectly resembles the characteristic of the world we live in today as opposed to Walt Whitman. In “Songs of Myself,” Whitman creates an ego-centered poem where he himself is the subject and the audience is brought into his mind where he reveals his thoughts about the mind, the body, and those around him. Although in the 6th stanza, Whitman does discusses men and women’s position in the world in terms of death, yet that does not sum up the stance of our world at this day in age. In “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold utilizes the sounds of the sea and the beauty of the night time to emphasis the darkness of it all, the darkness of the world. Arnold is successful at creating a contrast between what would relatively be seen as beautiful (the night and moon) and making it his own so that it is used as a over glorified view of this scene, leading onto the th sadness and pay he discusses at the end of the poem. Arnold states that there is “no peace, nor help for pain” which frighteningly resembles what is occurring in our world today. We seem to be going backwards in society; pain is happening all over through police brutality, inequality, immigration rights, etc. Along with this, the world itself is dying as seen through back to back storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, etc. Arnold compares himself to Sophocles in order to create a link between Sophocles experience with the sound of roaring seas and his own and how both were reminded of the turbid ebb and flow of human misery.” He compares roaring, crashing, untamable waves to the sadness, the corruption, and misery of the world and of humans. It’s almost disturbing to see a poem from 1867 to so closely resembles the characteristic of our own generation. To Arnold, the the sea of faith was once beautiful, but now it he hears “its melancholy long roar” when the waves crash. This lines resembles our world today the most because of one common factor: Faith. Faith is more important than ever in this day in age. With consistent agony and pain occurring throughout the world, the one belief that everyone must hold onto is Faith. Here, in this line, Arnold refers to the sea of faith as being somber which is precisely how faith in people is today. Although many people have faith in a better tomorrow, the roars and cries of the world make it difficult to keep such intangible beliefs. As history has taught us: History repeats itself, and this is one of the many instances where history is making a full circle and the misery that Arnold describes in 1867 is back to haunt us in 2017 and who knows where we are going from you.
The hook was drew me in and was very applicable to the blog post. Your opinion that Arnold fit our current status of the world more, surprised me. I thought Arnold was more about being a save the earth hippie but you proved that it is more about turmoil and faith.The I think that your post would be more powerful if you state the status of the modern world first so that you can focus on contrasting the two poets later. It would make it clearer to a reader who isn't necessarily from this time period /focus because I know I can fill in the gaps and understand what events you are referring to, but not necessarily other readers.
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