Matthew Arnold feels that mankind has always been aware of the essential ‘human misery’ that exists in the world, and refers to Sophocles to reinforce his point. It is appropriate for Arnold to have used Sophocles in the second stanza, as Sophocles has always written about human misery (his most famous tragic pieces being Oedipus Rex and Antigone); therefore this proves Arnolds point that human misery has been studied before.
The persona in Matthew Arnold’s poem seems to spring in part form the loss of spirituality in the world. He uses the metaphor ‘The Sea of Faith’ to describe the ‘withdrawal’ of people’s belief in religion. Whereas it was once a ‘bright girdle’ is now in retreat and all that is heard is the ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’
Although Louis MacNeice, makes a brief reference to religion, ‘a white light/ in the back of my mind to guide me’, generally there doesn’t seem to be much help for the dishonesty and corruption in the world. ‘I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,/ With strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,/ On black racks rack me, in blood baths roll me.’ He fears being imprisoned, tortured, and manipulated. He wants to be forgiven for the sins that he knows he will commit, due to he fact that the world will corrupt him. ‘Forgive me/for the sins that in me the world shall commit…’
The tone of ‘Dover Beach’ is predominantly one of reflective sadness. Many of the lines and phrases contain long vowel sounds, which slow the pace of the poem and add to the contemplative tone of the piece. An example of a lengthened vowel sound used by Arnold is: ‘moon-blanch’d land, withdrawing roar.’
On the other hand, ‘Prayer Before Birth,’ has a much quicker, pacier movement which is conveyed by the structure. Whereas there is an evenness and natural rhythm to ‘Dover Beach, ‘Prayer Before Birth gradually increases in intensity. This is clearly evident I the way the verses increase in length. For example, verse one is three lines long, and the last verse is twelve lines long. In addition, the poet uses very long sentences broken up with lots of commas, to mimic frightened, desperate speech. The lines of the verse are intended to convey the ‘stream of consciousness’’ of the unborn child’.
In addition Louis MacNeice makes considerable use of sound play (alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia) to add emphasis to his speaker’s point. ‘Blood-sucking bat…. Drugs dope… rack rack....’ We can see that in the fourth stanza, the alliteration of the ‘T’ adds emphasis to the horror of the treachery; similarly, the final stanza, the use of repetition of ‘hither and thither’ gives a sense of chaos and disruption which is appropriate for the idea of and individual being ‘dissipated’.
In ‘Dover Beach’, Arnold uses the onomatopoeic ‘roar’ to describe the sea noise, but generally speaking sound play is used less than in ‘Prayer Before Birth’.
However, Matthew Arnold does rely more heavily on another literary device-that of imagery- to create a vivid picture in our minds. Several images are particularly strong here: ‘moon-blanch’d land, which gives us a sense of emptiness. Also: ‘ignorant armies clashing by night’. This image suggests that the war that is being fought is useless, and that the soldiers who are fighting in it, don’t even know what cause they are fighting for. She uses this image to describe human ignorance.
Interestingly enough, the images that both poets leave us with is very similar: Arnold asks us to consider our life in this ‘dark world’ where armies continually kill and main, without really knowing what they are fighting for, whereas MacNeice draws our attention to his fear that he might become a killing machine, ‘a lethal automaton’ or simply a cog in a machine, with no independence or free thinking of his own. To him, this is a fate worse than death, and he would rather die.
What I think, is that the two poems are similar, because they are both evoke depressed feelings coming form the poet. Especially ‘Prayer Before Birth’, because how can a fetus be so incredibly pessimistic? ‘Dover Beach’ in my opinion is more poetic and more symbolic, and much more profound; whereas ‘Prayer Before Birth’ is more superficial and straightforward. I personally preferred ‘Dover Beach’ because of its vivid imagery, and subtle references to religion. I also feel sorry for Matthew Arnold, because when he wrote that beautiful poem, he was feeling anxiety, and uncertainty. He defiantly was not content whilst writing ‘Dover Beach.’ On the other hand I believe that Louis MacNeice was being cynical, and narrow minded.
