i need help in poetry?

Question

i have this poem to write about in dover beach i tried really hard to decode it but i couldn't do it...i just need like a guidance to explain what this poem is about. i would gratefully apreciate the help:D t

thank you

Answer 1

Go to your local library. There is a set of reference books called Poetry Criticism. It has a cumulative index and is easy to use. There might also be an electronic version.

Get your academic research from academic sources. Wikipedia is not an accepted research tool. Anybody can post anything to it. There is no editioral board, so the information found there can be questionable. It is a good place to start, but don't rely on it or site it, professors hate that, many forbid it.

Answer 2

In the first six lines, Arnold evokes the moonlit seascape of the English Channel, tranquil and sweet, and the reassuring "cliffs of England" of the Strait of Dover. "Only," opening the seventh line, begins the transition, unfolding through the "tremulous cadence" of the waves to the "eternal note of sadness." The Anglo-Grecian connections of Sophocles and the Aegean are only momentarily relevant "by this distant northern sea," for this is the Sea of Faith — or was, and that image withdraws in its turn and the vision turns windy, vast, naked and drear. "Ah love..." here the accumulated poetry conveys the momentary view that love is the bulwark against the uncertainties of the modern (Victorian) world — the solution the Victorian reader expected — "only" Arnold then undercuts this declaration with a despairing litany of the failure of culture, to end with the prophetic imagery of the last three lines.
God bless you, oh marvelous wikipedia!Though there could be more...