Question

Answer the following question as briefly as possible and with close reference to the relevant text.

Discuss how in the poem Dover Beach the poet, Mathew Arnold, reposes faith in love as a beam of hope amidst the surrounding despair.

Answer 1

The poem 'Dover Beach' by Mathew Arnold examines religious faith being undermined by scientific research and intellectual inquiry. He feels unquestioning faith in Christianity is diminishing, unable to withstand the surging tide of scientific discovery. Gripped with a sense of alienation, doubt, and resultant melancholy, the world requires a solution and that, according to the poet, is faith in love and hope amidst the surrounding despair. Sophocles had heard, "the eternal note of sadness", witnessing the fall of faith in the classical Greek Gods; the same possibility looms ahead for Christian God. He laments that faith once made the world "full" and ''bright'; it offered comfort and joy. Its loss leads to" melancholy." "Sea of Faith" once spread across the entire world, which is now "withdrawing." This global loss will herald "confused alarms of struggle and flight," and "ignorant armies clash[ing] by night.''. With religion losing its grip and causing a crisis of spiritual faith, the speaker feels only love is an answer for the loss of God. "Ah, love, let us be true to one another!" This suggests that love for one another may compensate for the loss of the connection between God and mankind.