dover beach

d world. Another difference between the two poems is Arnolds view on love. Arnold is less pessimistic in The Buried Life than in Dover Beach about the chance of understanding between lovers, but as the poem develops his main interest shifts to the possibility of man finding his true identity during rare moments of love (Allott 287). The endings of the poems also contrast. The conclusion of The Buried Life is at least remotely hopeful, because a man has the possibility that he thinks he knows. On the other hand, Dover Beach ends in a state of despair and gloom. Humans are living as on a darkling plain/ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,/ Where ignorant armies clash by night. Life really only holds darkness for these individuals who live during this time of disbelief. Matthew Arnolds works focus on religious and social criticisms. He had very strong opinions about the world he lived in. Through his poetry readers will gather a general sense of Arnolds opinion of society and the world during the nineteenth century. Arnolds poems Dover Beach and The Buried Life provide a brief insight into the canon and thought of Matthew Arnold. These works symbolize the belief of a reality higher than our own. In Arnolds poetry are encompassed beautiful images of nature, feelings of dismay, and a world of confusion. Works CitedAllott, Kenneth. The Poems of Matthew Arnold. New York: Longman Group Limited, 1979.Collini, Stefan. Arnold. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.Jump, J.D. Matthew Arnold. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1965. Roe, Frederick William. Essays and Poems of Arnold. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928....