Dover Beach Poem Analysis

Compare the video images to your own mental pictures and ideas about the poem. Has your understanding of the poem changed? 2. Review the structure of an effective interpretive sentence. Example 1 Consider the following question from Sound and a sample sentence like the kind you might construct. Remember that the structural elements of an interpretive sentence include: the context, a literary device, text examples, interpretation, and connecting words that create coherence. Question: Why are irregular lines, enjambment, and pauses within a line appropriate for a poem with a seaside setting?

In “Dover Beach” complex rhythmic patterns capture the motion of waves rolling onto a seashore and withdrawing: short and long lines visually imitate the waves’ movement; enjambment and internal pauses echo the simultaneous but opposing forces of incoming waves and the underlying outward pull of the sea.

Example 2 Consider the information in the first multiple-choice question from Meaning and a sample sentence like the kind you might construct.

QUESTION 1: Each stanza of “Dover Beach” has a specific setting-?suggested through literal description, allusion, or metaphor.

Choose the most accurate answer about eating and mood in the poem: A window view of the English Channel, evoking both peaceful and sad feelings Allusions to the glory of ancient Greece and the recurring tragedy of human misery The past glory of a metaphorical “Sea of Faith” and the present reality of melancholy The speaker’s wish for fulfillment and the despair of a metaphorical battle scene All of the above Sample Sentence: In all the stanzas of ‘Dover Beach,” language describing setting suggests positive and negative moods, a part of the larger motif of contrast conveyed by setting-?sea and land, present and past, real and advertorial places, the individual and society, national and universal identity.

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3. Construct at least ten interpretive sentences. As resources, use the questions and answers from Meaning along with your writing. Consult the poem and the Glossary as needed. Many items may yield more than one sentence.

QUESTION 2: In the style of the dramatic monologue, the speaker addresses a listener.

Stanza 3 best illustrates this listener’s absence from the speaker’s mind; the speaker seems lost in his melancholy thoughts, completely forgetting his lover’s presence. RESPONSE WRITER: What is ironic bout the speaker’s attitude (given the romantic setting) and his lyric voice (given the definition of a dramatic monologue)?

QUESTION 3: Analyze the language of the poem. The “s” sound occurs repeatedly as initial, medial, and end sounds in words throughout “Dover Beach. ” The sibilants in the first stanza are sea, lies, straits, coast, Gleams, cliffs, stand, vast, sweet, spray, sea, meets, Listen, pebbles, waves, strand, cease, tremulous, cadence, slow, sadness RESPONSE WRITER: Observe the use of ‘is” sounds in the remainder of the poem as well.

With specific examples, explain why the repetition of this mound is appropriate, given the setting and mood.

QUESTION 4: In the first stanza of ‘Dover Beach,” the “sea”/”land” words and the words that refer to sound and visual images are Sea: sea, tide, straits, bay, spray, waves Land: coast, cliffs, land, pebbles, strand Sound: Listen, hear, grating roar, waves, cadence, note Visual Images: moon, light/Gleams, Glimmering, tranquil bay, moon-blanched RESPONSE WRITER: Observe the general locations of each of these four groups of words in the stanza. What do these examples of diction and imagery contribute to the poem’s motif of contrast and connected opposites?

QUESTION 5: Diction conveys both positive and negative moods.

The words in the first stanza that have positive connotations and those with negative connotations are Positive: calm, full, fair, gleams, glimmering, tranquil, sweet Negative: grating, roar, draw back, fling, tremulous, sadness RESPONSE WRITER: Think about the ideas and moods communicated through these contrasting patterns of words. Does “moon-blanched land” belong with the list of positive or negative connotations? Support your answer by commenting on the mean inning and locations of words with positive and negative connotations n this and the remaining stanzas of the poem.

QUESTION 6: In the first stanza of “Dover Beach,” the motif of contrast and connected opposites is reinforced by all of these devices: 1 . Geographical details: Opposite shores of England and France are connected by water and the speaker’s viewpoint 2.

Spatial details: Narrow window, close at hand, frames the distant sea and land 3. Reflective observation and direct address: Inward self-reflection merges with social interaction 4. Apparatus: Opposing movements of waves are connected by repeated coordinate conjunctions

QUESTION 7: Despite its irregularity, the hymen scheme of “Dover Beach” has meaningful patterns. The end rhymes for words in the first stanza and their patterns are ABA: to-night, fair, light c:stand, land, strand db:bay, night-air, spray e:roar (rhymes with shore and roar in stanza 3) fog:fling, begin, bring in RESPONSE WRITER: How do these rhymes support the motif of contrast and connected opposites in “Dover Beach”?

QUESTION 8: The following language choices and literary devices in the second stanza are parallel to an element of the first stanza: Allusions: Sophocles and the ?Egan parallel the speaker by he English Channel The pronoun “it”: “Heard it” refers to the “grating roar”; “brought it” parallels “bring/The eternal note of sadness in” The pronoun “we”: The pronoun “we” refers to the speaker and the listener in the first stanza Repetition: Repetition of “Begin, and cease, and then again begin” parallels “ebb and flow”

QUESTION 9: Clarify the metaphor in the first three lines of the third stanza. Both the sea and the “bright girdle furled” are part of the vehicle. The best description of its tenor is IA universal faith once unified and enhanced human existence. ” The tenor of the metaphor is its abstract meaning.