The primary message of the poem is said in the beginning, and at the end of the poem. Whitman after looking up at the stars says “A vast similitude interlocks all” (Whitman 4). In the end he also brings it up again “This vast similitude spans them, and always has spanned” (Whitman 13). The vast similitude is the resemblance that the whole universe has to nature.
Mother Nature enters the connection when Whitman compares the sea to the “old mother” (Whitman 9). Whitman connects everything together in this poem, “All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,” (Whitman 10). Whitman implies that everything should be equal in the world.
“Dover Beach” is a much different poem with many mixed feelings and emotions in it. Sometimes people take for granted the love they have with one another, and Arnold is trying to emphasize the fact that those who we love are all we have. Arnold creates confusing tension by changing the mood of the poem in the middle of almost every stanza. In the beginning of the poem Arnold compares how love is calm in the beginning “The sea is calm to-night” (Arnold 1). The unpleasant tension is created when Arnold personifies the pebbles on the beach with the “Listen! You hear the grating roar” (Arnold 9). The “grating roar” creates the unpleasant tone throughout the rest of the second halves in the second stanza, “bring/The eternal note of sadness in” (Arnold 13-14).
In the third stanza Arnold uses a simile to start off the stanza “The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore/ lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled” (Arnold 21-23). The three lines explain that love is delicate and it helps dictate a more pleasant tone throughout the next stanza.
More unpleasant tension is created when Arnold starts to bring up some of the same words he used in the first stanza like “roar” (Arnold 9). Except this time it is a “withdrawing roar” meaning that people are losing faith and trust with one another (Arnold 25). Arnold’s use of tension throughout the entire poem shows how confusing love can be. He brings to life the parallels of love and the sea particularly with personification. It’s a message to us that it is necessary that we keep the people we love very close to us, and never to betray their trust; they are the ones we will need through the best and worst times.
Both poems have different feelings of tension inside of them. You can really feel the tension grip your mind in “Dover Beach.” Each author uses the beach to find the most important answers that matter to them. Whitman goes to the beach to find answers about the world and what connects us together. Arnold goes to find answers about love, and explains how the loss of love can tear one down. In Whitman’s poem everything seems to flow very quickly and connect like the ending message he creates in the poem. In Arnold’s poem everything does not flow very quickly, and you really have to analyze how each piece of literature fits into each stanza. His message of love and the confusion of it fit perfectly into each stanza. Each stanza starts off with a good feeling but then it flips 180 degrees and by the end of the stanza you are left with a negative feeling. Tension can be expressed in a variety of different ways but still works effectively in the end, as shown in these two poems. I think the tensions in the poems work so well because it fits in with the messages the poems are trying to deliver. Everything seems to connect together in “On the beach at night alone”, like how we are connected with the world and nature. Love can be beautiful and perplexing all at the same time which is what “Dover Beach can be. Both poets were outstanding in bringing out the right type of tension that perfectly matched the message in each poem.
