Dover Beach

"Dover Beach"
Matthew Arnold
p892

"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold presents three different bodies of water, each with their own respective meaning. In the first stanza, the English Channel is referenced. The second stanza alludes to the Aegean Sea. The third, the Sea of Faith.

The reference to the English Channel establishes the setting of the poem. Dover beach is located in an area which has a view of both the "French coast" and the "cliffs of England," (Arnold, 892). Through this literal body of water, the reader is able to understand where the thought process of the speaker is taking place.

The next referenced body of water, the Aegean Sea, serves a slightly different purpose. It is introduced following an allusion to the Greek philosopher Sophocles who "long ago heard [the eternal note of sadness] on the Aegean," (Arnold,  892). By alluding to such a well-known intellectual, the speaker is able to show the universality of what he is experiencing. If a normal man can experience the same emotions that a man as wise as Sophocles can, then the reader is able to conclude that this downtrodden feeling is common among humans. Therefore, the poem expresses a universal emotion to which the reader can also connect.

The last body of water that is mentioned is the only figurative image out of the three: the Sea of Faith. There is no literal Sea of Faith, but it does represent the feelings of the speaker. The Sea of Faith represents the speaker's personal level of faith which used to "lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled," (Arnold, 892). But now, the faith has dwindled, drained by a world that is not as it portrayed. The speaker sees no hope in trying to refill the Sea but instead finds comfort in his lover.

Sorting Laundry

"Sorting Laundry"
Elisavietta Ritchie
p841

"Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie presents an extended metaphor used to describe the relationship between the speaker and her lover. The reader is able to decipher that the speaker is a female because she describes her own articles of clothing, "blouses, panties, stockings, bras," which are all feminine articles of clothing (Ritchie, 842). Each item being sorted represents a different aspect of the couple's relationship. For example, the pillowcases and the bedsheets represent the time spent in bed with each other, both conversing and expressing their love. The gaudy towels suggest the quirkiness that exists within the relationship; their reluctance to fade, the couple's resistance to conform. Furthermore, the descriptions of the various articles of clothing serve to describe the relationship even more. The wrinkles in the clothing offer an insight into the "wrinkles" of the affair, some chosen to be smoothed out while others are overlooked. "[W]hat's shrunk" suggests that the love is not all that it was at its inception, yet it is still hard to discard (Ritchie, 842).

Lastly, the "strangely tailored shirt" and its consequential memory tell the reader that the speaker is uncomfortable with the thought of being alone (Ritchie, 842). Although she holds on to mementos from her past, she cannot see herself with another man, and thus she folds the laundry and folds her lover "into [her] life," (Ritchie, 841).

I taste a liquor never brewed

"I taste a liquor never brewed"
Emily Dickinson
p797

Unlike most of Emily Dickinson's poems, I was actually able to understand the meaning behind this poem. Her unusual punctuation and capitalization was unable to throw me off track! Throughout "I taste a liquor never brewed," the amount of nature imagery was very prevalent, and, with the help of the opening line, it is made clear that the liquor which the speaker is drinking is not a literal liquor. "I taste a liquor never brewed" lets the reader know that the alcohol referenced is not a literal drink because it was never manufactured (Dickinson, 797). The finest alcohols known to man such as the wines produced in the "vats upon the Rhine" could compare to the drink imbibed by the speaker (Dickinson, 797). In the second stanza, the source of intoxication is finally revealed: "air" and "dew," (Dickinson, 797). The speaker is indeed drunk on nature. However, her inebriation is not to be frowned upon. Within the poem, the drunkenness is portrayed as a thing to be celebrated and be embraced. For example, the state of intoxication is only referred to by positive diction, and in the last stanza, even the angels leave Heaven to watch the speaker stumble through her natural setting. They race from the clouds to watch the speaker stumble and lean against the sun, similar to a literally inebriated person leaning against a light post. In all, the poem seems to encourage the reader to imbibe all of the goodness that exists in nature because it provides an indescribable experience and is nothing to be ashamed of.

The Convergence of the Twain

"The Convergence of the Twain"
Thomas Hardy
p778

"The Convergence of the Twain" by Thomas Hardy seemed to offer to conflicting ideas to the reader: one is the contrasting of human vanity and the brute force of nature and the other is the inevitable matrimony of the two. Throughout the poem, the "jewels in joy designed," the "gilded gear," and the "opulent" nature of the Titanic create the image of human vanity (Hardy, 778). This quality is personified by the ship, and the fated meeting of the ship and the iceberg creates a feeling that the speaker looks down upon vanity; it is almost as if the quality of vanity can lead to no end other than ruin. This is where the idea of the "star-crossed lovers" comes into play. The diction towards the end of the poem creates a tone of a fated love with the use of marital, almost sexual, word choice. For example, "mate," "intimate welding," and "consummation" all add to this technique used by the speaker to describe the relationship between the ship and its downfall (Hardy, 778). This marital diction seems to be slightly ironic; it is unusual that words used to typically describe lovers would be used to describe such a tragic event. However, it does seem to reinforce the tragic Shakespearean idea of "star crossed lovers" by which two fated hearts fulfill their destiny only to discover that it is also their downfall.