Matthew Arnold was a poet, cultural critic, and school inspector, best remembered for his poem, ‘Dover Beach‘. It, along with several others, solidified Arnold’s place in the history of 19th-century poetry. Read more about Matthew Arnold.
‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold is dramatic monologue lamenting the loss of true Christian faith in England during the mid 1800s.
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
‘Buried Life’ by Matthew Arnold is a monologue through which a distressed speaker analyzes his complicated feelings about his own inner life.
‘Growing Old’ is about the reality of aging and how ones youthful expectations will not be fulfilled as one’s body losing beauty and strength.
‘Lines Written in Kensington Gardens’ describes a speaker’s experience within the confines of Kensington Gardens in London, England.
‘Longing’ by Matthew Arnold is a poem directed at someone’s lover. They ask this person to visit them in their dreams since they can’t be together during the day.
‘Philomena’ by Matthew Arnold follows a narrator who after encountering a nightingale in the woods in England, interprets it’s calls for the sounds of mourning.
‘The Forsaken Merman’ by Matthew Arnold is a melancholy poem in which the speaker, a merman, grieves the loss of his human wife. He’s left alone with their children without the woman he loves.
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