Love and Desire
"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and "Dover Bitch" by Anthony Hecht arepoems that on the surface are based on the same subject--love. Though bothpoems are about love, the poems are not alike. The love that MatthewArnold describes is a serious one, while the love that Hecht describes is,arguably, not love at all, but simply desire. "Dover Bitch" uses the"Dover Beach" as a platform to speak of love in a tone that is crass andhollow feeling-a feeling that has more to do with satisfying a physicaldesire than with satisfying an emotional desire. Both poets achieve theirgoals through the use of different tones. Through Matthew Arnold's choice of words and poetic descriptions ofplace that play on the senses, "Dover Beach" is obviously a serious poemabout love and desire. Even without knowing that "Dover Bitch" is aparody, a reader can understand that the tone of the poem is one ofmockery. To illustrate, "Dover Beach" builds on sights, "light gleams andis gone," (Arnold, 3-4) as well as sounds, "grating roar," (Arnold, 9) tolend a romantic tone to the poem through visualization. Arnold establisheshis tone in lines such as the ones describing the sea's ebb and flow-the
" One of these is the use of words to describe the placeand thus set the tone. The oppositeis true of "Dover Bitch. Arnold's reason for writing "Dover Beach" seems to be to point to loveas the only thing that can rise above a world that has "neither joy, norlove, nor light " (Arnold, 33). " The love described in the poem is one that isnothing more than an occasional one-night stand and one that has no powerto change things. Insatirizing Matthew Arnold's work, "Dover Bitch" becomes a commentary ondesire confused for love. The passage above illustrates the biggest differences between the twopoems-subject matter. There is no hope for a long-lasting, faithfulrelationship in "Dover Bitch. The collapse goes on behind thecharacters. The girl in "Dover Bitch" becomes angrybecause her date has taken her to Dover Beach-instead of having anostalgic, tender moment, she is thinking of wine, enormous beds andblandishments of in French and the perfumes" (Hecht, 11-15). To describe the view, Arnold chooses the words "thecliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast (5-6), while Hecht uses"cliffs of England crumbling away behind them (2). While very much different, "Dover Bitch" does have some similaritieswith "Dover Beach. "Dover Beach" lifts love to the level ofthe only thing in life that can overcome the "alarms of struggle andflight, where ignorant armies clash by night (Arnold 36-37). In conclusion, there are more differences than similarities betweenthe two poems "Dover Beach" and "Dover Bitch. Both descriptionsskillfully serve their purposes.
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Acceptance Essays
