Comparison between Arnold and Tennyson

Comparison between Arnold and Tennyson

Tennyson was an optimistic character.
He was happy with progress in England.
Arnold was a pessimistic character.
He was unhappy with progress in England as this progress came with the loss of many spiritual values, which his poetry voices.
Arnold said that this progress came with many various diseases, as the
people became to worship money, money-madness, like a man who has no
soul, like a machine.

Arnold (To Marguerite)

-The poem deals with isolation
-Arnold deals, in this poem, with the loss of the spiritual values in
England, as the people separated from each other and became
money-worshipers.
-In this poem, Arnold hints at;
Once love exists, people gathered.
Once love fades, people separated.
-Both Marguerite and the nightingale are symbols of love.
-Arnold mentioned in this poem that they are like islands in a big sea
without any shores, and they separated from each other and they are
mortals.
-He said that when the moon fills the whole place with
light and the nightingales spread their songs, they long to communicate
and love each other again.
-He assures the there is a God who
ordered that separation, but Its not the God of the holy books, It’s the
god of modern age, like the god of money, power ,…. .etc.

Arnold (Dover Beach)

-This poem is dealing with isolation.
-The poet is longing to his beloved who is isolated from him in France, and they are separated by the sea.
-The poet is asking his beloved to come to the window and see the spray and the flow of the sea.
-He said that the light, the moon and the flow of the sea, all that
sights brings to him a sense of melancholy, which reminds him of
Sophocles who felt the same sense long ago.
-The poet hints at the
lack of faith, saying that the sea of faith was surrounding the whole
earth like the dress surrounds the body, but that faith is retreating.
-He believes that the lack of faith, melancholy and that deceptive
world which is unreal, are the results of the lack of love, that love is
the only way out of them.
-He said that we live in a dark place, struggling with each other in the dark.
-He believes that love is the only solution to everything in that world, and who never ad hears for love is going to be lost.