Dover Beach Poem Analysis

In the poems Dover Beach written by Matthew Arnold, The Darkling Thrush and Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave, both written by Thomas Hardy, they all have the same topics though written by different people. Those topics are hope and death. In Dover Beach it talks about how there is still hope, in Thrush it talks about how a bird symbolizes freedom and hope, and lastly, Digging represents how people are usually forgotten after death. All three of these poems have great messages behind them and amazing question that they ask which a normal person would rarely even ask themselves of even think about it on a day to day basis. In all of these poems, Dover Beach, The Darkling Thrush, and Ah Are You Digging on My Grave are very different but all three

In Dover Beach, is about having a little bit of hope as the years go on. There is always hope for someone throughout their lifetime, even if they think there is not, there always is. They might think they are hopeless and they might think that no one or even themselves don’t have any hope in them but the reality is, there is and will always be hope for everyone in this world. “The poem opens with the peace that can be shared with a loved one” (Butler, Lance St. John. “Dover Beach: Overview.”), This poem is one of the more laid back and peaceful ones since it brings up how there is still hope for things even when you don’t think there is. As the reader continues to read through this poem, they have an idea that though death is nearing, there is always hope before it comes upon someone. Arnold wanted to point out that no matter how hard things get, never lose hope. “Thus as “Dover Beach” opens, we find Arnold at a moment of deep uncertainty, in a

In this poem but Thomas Hardy, he wanted to have the speaker observing a bird in the middle of winter, singing a song. This symbolizes that though the bird didn’t head south for winter, it wasn’t giving up and the bird was still able to sing its song.“The speaker is left alone outside with death all around him.” (Semansky, Chris. "Critical Essay on 'The Darkling Thrush'.") The speaker is outside in the middle of winter, observing this bird and he knows that the bird is going to die over the span of the winter but the bird obviously doesn’t and the bird has hope that he will make it through. Unless the bird was asking for death than maybe the bird doesn’t have hope, who knows. “Asserting that the bird is a symbol of the visionary imagination and that hope of identification” (May, Charles E. "Hardy's 'Darkling Thrush': The 'Nightingale' Grown Old.") As mentioned, the bird seems to have hope for itself and thinks that it will be able to survive through the cold winter with little food. This poem asks the question of is there any hope for someone, even if they are in a situation that they don’t think there will be hope for them in. Just like the bird, people know there is no hope in him living through the winter but the bird doesn’t seem to give up hope and is going to try its best to survive, which is why he is singing his song. The