Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night..
neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain is saying that world has become a selfish, cynical, amoral, materialistic battlefield; there is much hatred and pain, but there is no guiding light. The final stanza is basically a message to his lover saying that let them be true to each other in their marriage.
The Voice was written by Thomas Hardy, the poem is about him talking about his dead wife, how much he misses her and how he hears her calling for him. In first stanza “Saying that now you are not as you were When you had changed from one who was all to me, but as at first, when our day was fair” shows that their relationship changed, at first when they me, they were good couple but as time goes, the author was not as caring as before. “Can it be you that I hear... Standing as when I drew near the town where you would wait for me; yes, as I knew you then, Even to the original air-blue gown!” shows that how he thinks that he hear her and how much he remembers the good times with her. “Or is it only the breeze in its listlessness” shows that he is confused if its her he’s hearing or the just a noise.
Both Dover Beach and The Voice have some similarities. Both author talks about past and what they experienced in their past. Dover beach symbolize destruction, violence and sorrow. And using this to say to his lover let’s not allow their love be like that. Dover beach also talks about love but it talks about love which has ended, Thomas Hardy’s wife had died and he talks about how much he misses her.
