THE STORY OF AN HOUR

At the Beginning, News That Will Devastate Louise

At the beginning of the story, Richards and Josephine believe they must break the news of Brently
Mallard's death to Louise Mallard as gently as possible. Josephine informs her "in broken sentences;
veiled hints that revealed in half concealing." Their assumption, not an unreasonable one, is that this
unthinkable news will be devastating to Louise and will threaten her weak heart.

A Growing Awareness of Freedom

Yet something even more unthinkable lurks in this story: Louise's growing awareness of the freedom
she will have without Brently.

At first, she doesn't consciously allow herself to think about this freedom. The knowledge reaches her
wordlessly and symbolically, via the "open window" through which she sees the "open square" in
front of her house. The repetition of the word "open" emphasizes possibility and a lack of restrictions.

Patches of Blue Sky Amid the Clouds

The scene is full of energy and hope. The trees are "all aquiver with the new spring of life," the
"delicious breath of rain" is in the air, sparrows are twittering, and Louise can hear someone singing a
song in the distance. She can see "patches of blue sky" amid the clouds.

She observes these patches of blue sky without registering what they might mean. Describing
Louise's gaze, Chopin writes, "It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of
intelligent thought." If she had been thinking intelligently, social norms might have prevented her from
such a heretical recognition. Instead, the world offers her "veiled hints" that she slowly pieces
together without even realizing she is doing so.

A Force Is Too Powerful to Oppose

In fact, Louise resists the impending awareness, regarding it "fearfully." As she begins to realize what
it is, she strives "to beat it back with her will." Yet its force is too powerful to oppose.

This story can be uncomfortable to read because, on the surface, Louise seems to be glad that her
husband has died. But that isn't quite accurate. She thinks of Brently's "kind, tender hands" and "the
face that had never looked save with love upon her," and she recognizes that she has not finished
weeping for him.

Her Desire for Self-Determination

But his death has made her see something she hasn't seen before and might likely never have seen
if he had lived: her desire for self-determination.

Once she allows herself to recognize her approaching freedom, she utters the word "free" over and
over again, relishing it. Her fear and her uncomprehending stare are replaced by acceptance and
excitement. She looks forward to "years to come that would belong to her absolutely."

She Would Live for Herself

In one of the most important passages of the story, Chopin describes Louise's vision of self-
determination. It's not so much about getting rid of her husband as it is about being entirely in charge
of her own life, "body and soul." Chopin writes:

"There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There
would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe
they have a right to impose a will upon a fellow-creature."
Note the phrase men and women. Louise never catalogs any specific offenses Brently has committed
against her; rather, the implication seems to be that marriage can be stifling for both parties.

The Irony of Joy That Kills

When Brently Mallard enters the house alive and well in the final scene, his appearance is utterly
ordinary. He is "a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella." His mundane
appearance contrasts greatly with Louise's "feverish triumph" and her walking down the stairs like a
"goddess of Victory."

When the doctors determine that Louise "died of heart disease -- of joy that kills," the reader
immediately recognizes the irony. It seems clear that her shock was not joy over her husband's
survival, but rather distress over losing her cherished, newfound freedom. Louise did briefly
experience joy -- the joy of imagining herself in control of her own life. And it was the removal of that
intense joy that led to her death.

Brently Mallard

Louise‟s husband, supposedly killed in a train accident. Although Louise remembers Brently as a kind
and loving man, merely being married to him also made him an oppressive factor in her life. Brently
arrives home unaware that there had been a train accident.

Josephine

Louise‟s sister. Josephine informs Louise about Brently‟s death.

Richards

Brently‟s friend. Richards learns about the train accident and Brently‟s death at the newspaper office,
and he is there when Josephine tells the news to Louise.

Louise Mallard

An intelligent, independent woman, Louise Mallard understands the “right” way for women to behave,
but her internal thoughts and feelings are anything but correct. When her sister announces that
Brently has died, Louise cries dramatically rather than feeling numb, as she knows many other
women would. Her violent reaction immediately shows that she is an emotional, demonstrative
woman. She knows that she should grieve for Brently and fear for her own future, but instead she
feels elation at her newfound independence. Louise is not cruel and knows that she‟ll cry over
Brently‟s dead body when the time comes. But when she is out of others‟ sight, her private thoughts
are of her own life and the opportunities that await her, which she feels have just brightened
considerably.

Louise suffers from a heart problem, which indicates the extent to which she feels that marriage has
oppressed her. The vague label Chopin gives to Louise‟s problem—“heart trouble”—suggests that
this trouble is both physical and emotional, a problem both within her body and with her relationship
to Brently. In the hour during which Louise believes Brently is dead, her heart beats strongly—indeed,
Louise feels her new independence physically. Alone in her room, her heart races, and her whole
body feels warm. She spreads her arms open, symbolically welcoming her new life. “Body and soul
free!” she repeats to herself, a statement that shows how total her new independence really is for her.
Only when Brently walks in does her “heart trouble” reappear, and this trouble is so acute that it kills
her. The irony of the ending is that Louise doesn‟t die of joy as the doctors claim but actually from the
loss of joy. Brently‟s death gave her a glimpse of a new life, and when that new life is swiftly taken
away, the shock and disappointment kill her.

In “The Story of an Hour,” independence is a forbidden pleasure that can be imagined only privately.
When Louise hears from Josephine and Richards of Brently‟s death, she reacts with obvious grief,
and although her reaction is perhaps more violent than other women‟s, it is an appropriate one.
Alone, however, Louise begins to realize that she is now an independent woman, a realization that
enlivens and excites her. Even though these are her private thoughts, she at first tries to squelch the
joy she feels, to “beat it back with her will.” Such resistance reveals how forbidden this pleasure really
is. When she finally does acknowledge the joy, she feels possessed by it and must abandon herself
to it as the word free escapes her lips. Louise‟s life offers no refuge for this kind of joy, and the rest of
society will never accept it or understand it. Extreme circumstances have given Louise a taste of this
forbidden fruit, and her thoughts are, in turn, extreme. She sees her life as being absolutely hers and
her new independence as the core of her being. Overwhelmed, Louise even turns to prayer, hoping
for a long life in which to enjoy this feeling. When Brently returns, he unwittingly yanks Louise‟s
independence away from her, putting it once again out of her reach. The forbidden joy disappears as
quickly as it came, but the taste of it is enough to kill her.

The main themes in “The Story of an Hour” are freedom, time, and identity.

Freedom: Louise is overjoyed by the realization that Brently‟s death will render her free to live as she
chooses, highlighting the repressive nature of Victorian marriages.

Time: Time is a matter of perception, and Louise‟s hour of imagined freedom comes at the cost of her
life.

Identity: Louise has long been denied a sense of selfhood due to her role as a wife. Brently‟s death
offers her the chance to explore and claim her own identity.

Freedom

After hearing of Brently‟s death, Louise is confronted by the epiphany that she is now a free woman.
Though some part of her admits to having loved Brently, she cannot help but be overjoyed by the
notion of not having to live for anyone but herself. Brently was everything that a Victorian husband
was supposed to be, and he never “looked save with love upon [Louise].” However, Louise has been
unhappy for the duration of her marriage, noting that only yesterday she had looked upon the
prospect of a long life with horror. The implication is that marriage is an oppressive institution in which
people “impose a private will upon a fellow-creature,” something that Louise views as abhorrent.
Though her marriage was everything the average Victorian wife could hope for, Louise still felt
trapped and restricted by Brently, and his death is a sort of emancipation for her.

Louise‟s newfound sense of freedom is echoed by her surroundings, as the world outside of her open
window is suffused with new spring life. Louise breathes in an “elixir of life” through the window,
anticipating being free of the confines of her marriage. Her visions of the future focus on the outside
world—spring and summer days that will be entirely her own. The house seems to represent the
confines of her marriage to Brently, and the open window offers a glimpse into a world free from the
institutions that have kept her repressed. However, Louise‟s emancipation is ultimately only an
illusion; even as she descends the stairs like a “goddess of Victory,” her husband blocks her path to
the outside world, and Louise dies upon seeing him. With Brently alive, Louise‟s chance at living life
for herself has ended. Instead, readers are offered the choice to view her sudden death as either the
tragic consequence of shock and a bad heart or as Louise‟s escape into the only kind of freedom left
to her.

Time

The importance of time is foregrounded in the title of the short story, and Louise‟s emotional
ruminations in the wake of Brently‟s supposed death highlight the changeable nature of people. Time
rules over Chopin‟s characters in subtle and unsubtle ways, beginning with Richards‟s decision to
rush to the Mallard residence to break the news lest a “less careful, less tender” friend arrive ahead
of him. Had Richards stalled longer, Louise may never have learned of the mistaken report, sparing
her life but leaving her unaware of her desperate desire for independence.

After Louise retires to her room, time becomes aligned with the creeping realization of what Brently‟s
death could mean for her future. Whereas her grief at hearing the news was immediate, her sense of
relief at the prospect of freedom is gradual, and she begins to see “beyond [the] bitter moment” of
Brently‟s death into a “long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” For
Louise, who is described as young, Brently‟s death represents only a fleeting “moment” in her life,
and she sees the years she still has ahead of her unfolding. Time is subject to perception, and
circumstances have allowed Louise to begin appreciating the time she has left in a way that she was
never able to before. Prior to his death, Brently controlled what Louise did with her time. Now, it
belongs entirely to her.

However, for all the change that the fleeting hour has brought for Louise, those around her remain
relatively unchanged. Both Josephine and Richards continue to worry for Louise‟s health, unaware
that her outlook on life has altered completely. Even less has changed for Brently Mallard, who was
nowhere near the site of the train accident and is unaware that he is presumed dead. Over the
course of an hour that saw no material change in Louise‟s circumstances, her entire life was
irrevocably impacted by the mere prospect of freedom. In the end, just as Richards was too early in
bringing the news of Brently‟s death to Louise, he is also too late in “screening [Brently] from the view
of his wife,” and Louise dies. Louise‟s newfound dreams for her future were ultimately based on
inaccurate information, but she has changed fundamentally as a person, rendering her incompatible
with the life that circumstances have forced her back into.

Identity

Louise Mallard is depicted as a frail woman with a bad heart, and Richards and Josephine fear that
the news of Brently‟s death will negatively impact her health. This was not an uncommon attitude
toward women in the Victorian era, and Louise‟s “white slender hands” suggest that she has led a life
of relative ease and comfort. However, though her hands are unblemished, her face has a “certain
strength” and essence of “repression,” highlighting the disparity between an easy life and a fulfilled
one. Those around Louise treat her with gentleness and regard her as someone who must be
prevented from making herself ill with grief, infantilizing her and reinforcing her socially mandated
helplessness. However, Josephine and Richards misjudge Louise, mistaking her unhappiness for
frailty and her joy for grief. The outside world‟s inability to conceive of Louise as an individual
necessitates the creation of a deeply repressed interior world that belongs only to her.

It is only once Louise is alone that her thoughts begin to wander and that she realizes the true
implications of Brently‟s supposed death. She is at first horrified by her reaction to her newfound
freedom, believing that her joy is “monstrous” in nature, as it comes at the expense of her husband‟s
life. However, as the reality of her impending freedom takes root in her psyche, she cannot refrain
from envisioning a future that she thought was lost to her. Louise‟s life so far has been devoted to
others, as her role as a Victorian wife dictated. However, with Brently gone, her life is finally her own,
and she can possess the “self-assertion” that she has never before been able to pursue. Marriage
and social expectations have prevented Louise from having an identity entirely of her own, but
Brently‟s death frees her to live out the desires she has kept repressed.

Answer : The main themes of “The story of an Hour” are — female self discovery and identity
and also the repressive nature of marriage.

●Self discovery and identity---

Kate Chopin‟s „The story of an Hour‟ is based on the theme of female self discovery and identity.
When Mrs. Mallard first got to know about her husband‟s death she wept violently with grief. But
when she was alone in her room, she began to feel an unknown sense of freedom and relief. At first
she was frightened of her new insight -

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it fearfully”

This fear shows her lack of confidence that whether could she be able to hold the freedom for which
she was longed.

When she abandoned herself a little whisper came out of her lips -
"Free, free, free!"

The repeatation of the word free indicates that she was always yearned for this freedom.

She could feel the freedom to have control over her own life. She began to imagine her life without
her husband, and could enjoy the visions of her future.

“ There would be no one to live for her during those coming years.”

This feeling brought her the feeling of independence and self control over her own life. She was now
filled with confidence.

“There would be no powerful will bending hers”.

Although she loved her husband — sometimes, often she had not. But her love for her husband
Brently has become meaningless when compared to her “self assertion which she suddenly
recognised as the strongest impulse of her being ! “

Louise recognised the idea of attaining selfhood and identity as a woman. She has now changed into
a new, independent and confident woman -

“ There was a feverish triumph in her eyes and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of
Victory. “

The possession of new identity and self assertion was so strong a force , that when she realised that
her husband was alive, she immediately collapsed.

Chopin suggests that Louise could not bear to abandon her new found freedom and return to life with
her husband where she would have to submit her will to his.

●Repressive nature of Marriage----

Another important theme of the story is the repressive nature of conventional marriage in late
nineteenth century.

At the beginning of the story Chopin presented Mrs. Mallard as a wife. Her own identity as a woman
was missing .

Similarly, very little is said about her relation with her husband, even Louise was unsure whether or
not they had been happily married . And also it was not clear whether she had loved Brently or not -

“And yet she had loved him — sometimes . often she had not. What did it matters !”

When Louise was alone in her room her feeling of joy and freedom on imagining her life without her
husband indicates that she was not happy in her marriage. It is her joy at her husband‟s death, that
make the readers realise the confinement she was in. She feels released from the clutches of
matrimony.

Brently forced his will upon Louise, denying her the freedom to be who she really was. Brently,
therefore loved the social image of a dutiful wife , but he did not love the real Louise .

The story argues that imposing a “private will upon a fellow creature” no matter how kindly the
intention “is no less a crime”.

It does not seem like love ,but this put the institution of marriage down into a quest.

Chopin seems to be making a comment on nineteenth — Century marriages , which granted the men
the right to own and dominate the women .
Character Sketch of Louise Mallard

Mrs. Louise Mallard is the main protagonist of the story, “ The Story of an Hour”.

Chopin describes Louise as “Young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and
even a certain strength.”

The above line from the text indicates Louise as

◆ A woman who faces repression and trapped in her marriage.

◆ A woman with an inner strength and self assertion.

● A Woman Trapped in her Marriage ---

Mrs. Mallard was an unhappy woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. Unable to free herself from
her relationship with Brently, she endured it. Louise has forced herself to submit to the will of her
husband because society expects such behaviour.

At the news of her husband‟s death, though she cried “ at once with sudden wild
abandonment,” not for a moment she wanted him back. She was so dominated and enslaved that
all “she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years that would belong to her
absolutely.”

●A Strong and Self - Asserting Woman-----

At the beginning of the story Mrs. Mallard was identified as only a wife and named as Mrs. Mallard ,
but her true identity as a strong woman revealed when she got the news of her husband‟s death.
When she learned of Brently‟s death ,she became „ Louise‟, a woman aware of her own desires,
enjoying the prospect of being free from the confines of repressive marriage.

" Free ! Body and soul free! "

This shows the change that happened in the perception of life in Mrs. Mallard‟s mind.

She now realised that “ there would be no powerful will bending hers” she stretched her hands to
welcome the new life of freedom as she said that she will have no one to live for but herself.

Therefore, she emerged from her room “like a goddess of Victory” with “a feverish triumph in her
eyes”. She had won back her individuality and freedom.

●Suffered from Heart Disease----

“ Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble”, this indicates the extent of repression in her
marriage. Here „heart trouble‟ suggests that this trouble is both physical as well as emotional, a
problem within her body as well as within her marriage with Brently. When Louise learned that Brently
is dead, her heart beats fast and the “ coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her
body”.

But as soon as Brently walked in , her „heart trouble‟ reappeared and the feeling of losing her
newfound freedom and return to her married life also appeared alongside. This time time her trouble
is so acute that it killed her .

●Emotional and Demonstrative Woman---

When Josephine announced the news of death of Mr. Mallard, Louise wept at once, suddenly and
hysterically, her dramatic expression rather than feeling numb like any other woman, shows that she
is very demonstrative and emotional.
Although she felt confined in her marriage yet she loved her husband — “sometime”, she was
unsure whether or not they had been happily married.

She knew that when she would see “ the kind ,tender hands folded in death “ she would weep
again. This shows that she is not cruel but emotional . When she was alone in her room imagining
her future life without her husband, her love for her husband became meaningless as compared to
her self assertion and new found freedom.

Answer : Feminism is a movement carried out at social, cultural and political levels to
establish and provide equal rights and protection for social equality of gender.

Kate Chopin is acknowledged for initiating the modern feminist movement in late nineteenth century.
Her stories were revolved around the lives of sensitive and daring women of late nineteenth century.
She tries to capture the hardships and struggle of women and this way their condition and status in
society. She is considered far ahead of her time due to her radical views against the patriarchal
society.

Chopin portrayed women as oppressed and maltreated by the society. Women were dominated by
their husbands and forced to live the life controlled by their husbands. Husband‟s were independent
and like rulers while wives were considered as slaves. In a marriage, wives were treated as inferior,
with no free will and had to act upon their husbands orders.

In “The story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin the protagonist Louise Mallard is portrayed as s typical
American wife at the beginning of the story but after getting the news of her husband‟s death in an
accident, she behaved differently because she felt free and independent from the constraints.

Chopin deconstructed the view of a typical wife by portraying Louise Mallard‟s different response to
her husband‟s death.

The story shows how married women were not happy in their married life and were dependent upon
their husbands. This reflects how women were struggling hard to find their identity. The story
perfectly depicts the feelings of a wife in the late nineteenth century.

„The Story of an Hour‟ is a story of a woman who was suffering from heart disease. The woman —
Mrs. Mallard was confined in an unhappy marriage and unable to free herself from her relationship
with Brently Mallard, she endured it.

At the news of her husband‟s death, though she cried “at once with sudden , wild abandonment” but
not for a moment she wanted him back.

The main character is known in the beginning of the story only as a wife — Mrs. Mallard as she didn‟t
have her own identity, she was known as Mrs. Mallard. As soon as she learned of Brently‟s death ,
she became “Louise” , a woman aware of her own desires, who had control over her life.

When Mrs. Mallard was alone in her room, she felt that

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it fearfully “. She was so repressed in
her marriage that the thought of being free made her fearful.

Soon she recognised it but scared to admit it. She quickly found peace , joy and relaxed while she
kept whispering “ free, free, free!” .

The bitter moment of her husband‟s death helped her see “ a long procession of years to come that
would belong to her absolutely. “

She was looking forward to the years of independent freedom and are yet to come. And she
welcomed them.
In those coming years “ she would live for herself “. She has lived a life that has given her limitations.

She has forced herself to submit to the will of her husband because society expects such behaviour.
But with her husband‟s death “ there would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistance
“, which believed in imposing a private will upon other one .

The sense of freedom brought her self assertion and a new identity. Although she had loved him
sometimes but this love is meaningless when compared to her self assertion and newly found
freedom.

When Louise felt free from the shadow of her husband she appear a totally different woman “ she
carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory”.

This way the freedom brought her to independence and self confidence which led her to discover her
true identity as a woman.

It was such a strong force that when she realised that her husband was alive, she immediately
collapsed. Chopin suggests that Louise could not bear to abandon her new found freedom and return
to life with her husband where she would be required to bend her will to his.

The reasons of Mrs. Mallard‟s death : The Story of an Hour

Question: What according to you led to Mrs Mallard‟s death? Give reason to support your
answer.

Answer : „The Story of an Hour‟ is a series of emotion that transformed a woman from Mrs.
Mallard MTO Louise and then again Mrs. Mallard in just an hour.

The protagonist Mrs. Mallard was confined in a repressive marriage with Brently Mallard. Mrs.
Mallard, who was unaware of her own repression, was described by the author as a woman with
calm face “ whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. “

Chopin suggest that Mrs. Mallard forced herself to submit to the will of her husband because society
expected her such behaviour.

Mrs. Mallard was suffering from heart disease, it was assumed that the news of her husband‟s death
could harm her but she bore it easily.

“ She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister‟s arm.”

But surprisingly, not for a moment she wanted him back.

When she was alone in her room resting in an armchair, she realised something was coming to her.
Then she recognised it as the most precious thing which she always yearned for — freedom. At first
she was striving to beat it back with her weak and powerless will,”when she abandoned herself a little
whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath :” free,
free, free !”

She began to feel relaxed and happy and more vital then ever. She felt free and released from the
clutches of repressive marriage .

Her new found freedom is brought on by an influx of emotion that added the meaning and value to
her life. Although, Mrs. Mallard initially felt fear when she heard the news of her husband‟s death but
the strength of the emotion was so powerful that she began to feel joy. The was the “joy that kills”
ultimately leads to her death.

The news of her husband‟s death made her entirely new person — Louise. Her new found freedom
brought her new confidence and new identity. She was now removed from the repressed life and she
has got her self determination.
Louise imagined her life without her husband, she enjoys vision of her future.

“ Spring days and summer days and all sort of days that would be her own.”

She realised that whether or not she had loved him was less important than”this possession of self
assertion” she now feels.

She was overwhelmed by the idea that “she would live for herself”.

This possession of self assertion was so strong a force, that when she finds her husband alive, she
immediately collapsed.

The doctors and Brently Mallard, Richards, Josephine believed that it was Louise‟s weak heart that
could not bear the joy of seeing her husband alive.

The reader can easily find the irony of “ the joy that kills”. It was the unpleasant shock that she got
when she saw her husband alive , that killed her. She could not bear the sorrow that she would have
to give up her new found freedom and return to the slavery of married life where she would be
controlled by her husband.

DOVER BEACH

Critical Appreciation

Arnold's "Dover Beach" laments the transition from an age of certainty into an era of the erosion of
traditions and loss of faith - Modernism. "Misery", "sadness" and "melancholy" reign most of the
poem, yet the author chooses to conclude it with an emotional appeal for honesty: "Ah, love, let us be
true/ to one another" - as it is the only true certainty left as the world around collapses under
"struggle" and "fight".

In Dover Beach Matthew Arnold is describing the slow and solemn rumbling sound made by the sea
waves as they swing backward and forward on the pebbly shore. The poet notes that this sound
suggests the eternal note of sadness in human life. Here he points out that in ancient times
Sophocles heard the same sound of the pebbles on the shore, and it reminded him of the ebb and
flow of human misery.

The poet explains the gradual loss of man‟s faith in a grand and suggestive metaphor. He compares
faith in religion to a sea that surrounds the world. The sea had its full tide, and then it ebbs away with
the mournful music over the pebbles. The poet reminds the world in which there was full of faith and
men believed in religion. But now that faith is gradually passing away and men‟s minds are like
pebbles on the shore. The passing of faith causes the minds to be isolated in the border between
belief and disbelief. It is a sad melancholy state. When the poet hears the grating roar of pebbles of
the sea, he is reminded of the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” of faith as it retreats from men‟s
minds. It is a chilly prospect, like the breath of the night wind, and it brings into the mind a dreary
feeling of helplessness, as though the mind is left stripped and bare on the vast and dreary edges of
an unknown land.

The lines from 'Dover Beach' give bitter expression of Arnold‟s loss of faith, his growing pessimism.
Victorian world was changing very rapidly with the growth of science and technology. The world
seemed to be strangely unreal, without anything real to cling to or grasp. It has variety, beauty and
freshness. But it is all blind negation: there is in it neither love nor joy nor light nor peace, certitude or
any help for pain. There is nothing certain in it. Therefore he compares men struggling in the world
with armies struggling on a plain at night. There is a sound of confused alarms and struggles, but the
soldiers are ignorant as to what they are fighting for and why.
"Dover Beach" presents the reader with a virtual journey through time. Time here is represented by
the image of the sea - with its vastness evoking powerful admiration. The theme of mutability follows
closely because of the sea's unreliable nature. It is presented as something inevitable and insecure
and, in its turn, leads onto the theme of humans staying true and honest to one another - this
involving love for each other - as the only way to remain together, "for the world, which seems/ to lie
before us like a land of dreams/ Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light."

In Dover Beach Matthew Arnold is describing the slow and solemn rumbling sound made by the sea
waves. The sea waves swing backward and forward on the sea shore. The sea waves create
monotonous sound all the time. The withdrawing waves roll the pebbles back towards the sea, and
the returning waves roll them up the shore. The poet says that this sound suggests the eternal
sadness in human life. Here he points out that in ancient times Sophocles heard the same sound of
the pebbles on the shore, and it reminded him of the flow of human misery. Now this poet hears the
sound of this Dover Beach, and he finds in it the same thought. The poet explains the gradual loss of
man‟s faith and compares faith in religion to a sea that surrounds the world. The poet is reminded of
the world which was full of faith and men believed in religion. But now that faith is gradually passing
away and men‟s minds are like pebbles on the shore. The passing of faith causes the minds to be
isolated. It is a sad melancholy state. It is a wintry night and the wild is blowing like the breath of
night. The night wind brings into the mind a dry feeling of helplessness, because the mind is left
stripped and bare in the vast, unknown land.

The lines from 'Dover Beach' give bitter expression of Arnold‟s loss of faith, his growing pessimism.
The world seemed to be strangely unreal. It has variety, beauty and freshness. But it has neither love
nor joy nor light nor peace. There is nothing certain in it. Therefore he compares men struggling in
the world with armies struggling on a plain at night. There is a sound of confused alarms and
struggles, but the soldiers are ignorant of what they are fighting for and why.

The first stanza opens with a calm, bright moonlit sea which reflects the serene and peaceful mood of
the poet. He calls upon his companion to share the sweetness and tranquillity of the night air, but he
is conscious of „the grating roar‟ which disturbs the peace, the calm and the sweet music. The stanza
ends on a „note of eternal sadness‟.

In the second stanza the poet effectively uses a metaphor where the flow of human misery is
compared to the tides of the sea.

The poem falls into two parts. In the first part, Arnold speaks of the resonances of seawaves on the
pebbly shore. In the second he speaks of armies struggling ignorantly at night. There is perhaps not
very clear connection between the earlier and the latter part. Yet the poem reads well because it is
held together by a unity of sentiment. The two descriptive analogies are drawn from classical
sources, but the unifying sentiment is romantic in its haunting pessimism and lack of faith.

Arnold through 'Dover Beach' describes the effects of industrialization of the 19th century England.
Victorian world was changing very rapidly with the growth of science and technology. This poem
condemns the loss of faith, religion and the meaning of life resulting from the industrialization and
advancement in science and technology.

Arnold describes the difference between the appearance and reality of the Victorian world. It looks
new and beautiful like a land of dreams but in reality this world does not really have joy, love, light,
peace, certitude or any help for pain. He describes the world as a dark plain which is becoming even
darker as the time passes. He compares the people struggling and running in their ambitions to the
armies fighting at night, unknown of why and with whom they are fighting.

Although, this poem had shown the loss of faith, religion and love of 19th century it is similar in the
context of the 21st century as well. People have lost their faith in God. They are engaged in
commerce. They have become materialistic which has decreased their satisfaction in life. They are
more isolated and lonely. So, the poet wants to aware all the human being of this disaster created by
the sufferings, sorrows and melancholy. The only way out of this disaster according to Arnold is to
love and to have a faith in one another and do believe in God and live in reality rather than the land of
dreams.

Arnold‟s skillful use of elaborate similes and lively images has made the message of the poem even
more poignant.

Analysis of the Poem

The poet runs with two vital themes throughout man‟s composition, the natural world and his loss of
faith. Compose represents the victorian times when the age of questioning had started and taken
over the modern man‟s minds. He admires the beauty of the cliffs of Dover. He is mesmerised by the
lighthouse, the calmness of the sea and the pleasant air around him. The sound of the sea feels the
notion of the change like humankind behaviour. According to him, the pebbles‟ sound slowly moving
back and forth represents the ocean‟s sadness.

The poem takes a move towards the ancient greek playwright. Sophocles. He compares the sadness
of the sea felt by him was touched by Sophocles watching the Aegean sea. The sound of the waves
is compared to the dismay of humans. Another thought flashes in the poet‟s mind while looking at the
waves of the sea. According to him, people‟s belief and faith in religion like the tides are rising, but
now as the world‟s edges are left naked, people‟s religious view has disappeared.

The poet further explores the world of love and states that all the earth elements represent dream-like
beauty but do not show love, joy or clarity. He addresses his companion as his lover and the need to
trust each other. Which he understands is not possible. He compares the situation to standing on flat
land where many people have fought in the darkness. The poem is left at a sad note that maybe love
can save people from modern thoughts and developments of mind, and perhaps even love will not be
enough to protect the people who have stopped believing in religion. He has left it for readers to think
to trust in love and nature.

Themes in Dover Beach Analysis

The religious shift- The poem‟s era is when there is development in human beings‟ minds due to
scientific changes. Dover Beach acts as a transitional figure in the whole composition. As the tide
sets low and the border of the land is left naked. Similarly, humankind is losing interest in the bible. A
beautiful build-up of the sea‟s beauty and the atmosphere around it leads to the sea and people‟s
eternal sadness. The comparisons between the movement of the sea and the belief of people
changing come in a cycle. Faith is lost by the end of the poem, which was touched once by it.
Therefore from the first para to the last stanzas, there are different references of change and loss of
faith due to ignorance.

Significance of Nature- Beach and the sea is the representation of nature in the whole poem.
According to the poet, nature is beautiful since eternity and will remain like that, but it feels the
sadness and happiness of humankind as the development is taking place. Time alienation is handled
by the poet here. In all three stanzas, nature has been a thought-provoking factor for the poet. In the
end, the poet talks about the natural surroundings and the present time, that people have lost faith
and trust, which has had its effect on nature.

The love- The poet is hoping that the faith in religion will be restored by the love people have. He
talks to his companion as a lover and explains that the lost trust between people can be saved by the
love people feel.

Dover Beach Analysis Techniques

The poem has used many literary techniques like existentialism, which means the piece is ahead of
its time.

Stanzas of Dover Beach Analysis

Stanza 1

The beginning of the poem is a dramatic monologue. The composer further stands on the cliff of
Dover beach and admires the sea‟s beauty and the atmosphere‟s serenity. The sensory mood to its
maximum best. Now and then, the significance of nature is made with the feelings of human beings.
The calmness of the sea shows harmony and balance in our life. The flickering light at the lighthouse
represents the lost faith of people in god.

The erosion of the rock and soil over some time signifies the vulnerability of human faith in God.
Furthermore, the poet calls out to his companion to come and enjoy the beauty of the night and feel
the shift felt by the sea due to a change in people‟s thinking towards God. The end of the stanza is
done with a powerful sensory creation on the readers. The poet ends the stanza by saying that the
sea feels the sadness of the world, and it shows by the sound the waves make by moving the
pebbles. The use of this technique leaves a depressing and tragic image on the readers.

Stanza 2

While mulling on his thoughts, he drifts toward Sophocles, a tragic greek philosopher. The sadness of
the sea was felt by the greek poet while looking at the Aegean sea. The sea‟s pain moves the poet
himself due to human nature‟s shift due to scientific development. The significance of the sea is like
the classic imagery of the creator.

Stanza 3

The change in the mindset of people has brought a difference in the belief of people in religion. There
are doubts created among people on God. These doubts, according to the poet, will lead to misery
and sorrow among humankind. The pool of faith which engulfed humanity has shifted.

The sea waves, which were once strong and fierce like the faith in religion, have become weak and
left the land naked. The symbolism used here shows that the way the sea was protecting the stones
now the divine is not there to protect the Earth.

Stanza 4

The last stanza mentions the companion of the poet as his lover. He calls him to stand beside him
and enjoy the beauty of the night and sea. But along with that, he wants his lover to feel the pain and
sorrow of the sea. The saviour of this grief is only the love of humanity.

The shift is so substantial of non-belief in humans that the creator is sad because they question
religion. The sadness has engulfed nature. The sea feels the pain, and now only love can save
everyone from this pain. People are fighting in darkness and giving rise to more hatred and
hopelessness. A never-ending fight is going on, resulting in a loss of purpose and meaning in life.
The end of the poem is sad and one of disbelief.

Question : How does the poem “Dover Beach” imply that in the contemporary spiritual
wasteland, love is the only consolation ?

Answer : In most of the lines of the poem “Dover Beach”, Matthew Arnold explored the theme of loss
of faith in God and religion, but in the last stanza, Arnold has depicted the comforting power of love.
Thus it can be said that “ Dover Beach”, on one level can certainly be called a love poem.

Arnold feels that the world is empty of faith and love and full of trouble. So, at the start of the last
stanza, he turns to his love and hopes for some solace. As he says -

“Ah, love, let us be true / To one another !”

He hopes that love can give him hope for the world . The world, which is apparently beautiful is in fact
not so. The poet believes that the world only looks beautiful and new but in reality it has -
“neither joy, nor love, nor light

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain”.

Although the world looks new and beautiful like a land of dreams but in reality this world does not
really have joy, love, light, peace, certitude or any help for pain. He describes the world as “ a
darkling plain” means a dark plain which is becoming even darker as the time passes.

The world has become a contemporary spiritual wasteland, which is marked by a selfish, cynical,
amoral and materialistic battlefield full of hatred and pain where there is no guiding light.

Arnold compares the world without faith in God and religion with a battlefield at night, where soldiers
rush, pursuing and firing at shadows unable to tell friend from foe; it is a dark plain

“Where ignorant armies clash by night”.

He compares the people struggling and running in their ambitions to the armies fighting at night,
unknown to why and with whom they are fighting.

Arnold firmly believes that Christianity is dead, and his instincts tell him that humankind desires for
something to believe in something which can give force and meaning to life.

The modern world, with its science and commercialism, cannot provide what human beings desire.

Arnold believes that only love and compassion can somehow restore man‟s faith in religion and in the
goodness of the world. Thus, the speaker turns to his love and says that they should be true to each
other, because there is nothing else possible to give meaning to life. Love and and being true to one
another is an Oasis of security when turmoil abounds in the world.

This is romantic love at its most radical. Without love, between a man and a woman, the world is as
confusing and as lethal as a night battlefield.

Question : Bring out the conflict between religion and science in the context of Matthew
Arnold‟s poem “Dover Beach”.

Answer : During the Victorian Era, the Industrial Revolution, and development of Science and
Technology had changed the entire religious beliefs of people.

In the mid nineteenth century, Arnold noted that the pillar of faith supporting society was perceived as
crumbling under the weight of scientific theories, such as those of English naturalist Charles Darwin,
English physician Erasmus, French naturalist Lamarck consequently the existence of God and the
whole Christian scheme of things was cast in doubt, Arnold who was deeply religious, lamented the
dying of the light of faith, as symbolised by the light he sees on Dover Beach on the Coast of France,
which gleams for a moment and fades away the next moment.

According to the traditional existing religious beliefs, God created man, directly from the clay image,
by breathing life into him.

But several scientific theories especially the publication of Charles Darwin‟s revolutionary book “On
the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” introduced a new theory stated — that the
biological specimens, including humans evolve over the course of generations through a process of
natural selection.

But this theory contradicted the religious beliefs from olden times. The theories challenged the
traditional story of how life began.

It made the Victorians feel that they had been suddenly abandoned by God and this led them into an
era of doubt about the existing religious beliefs. This is called the “Crisis of Faith”. It is due to this
reason Matthew Arnold is “often described as the embodiment of Victorian religious crisis”.
“ Dover Beach” is often read as a poem that was written as a way of expressing the void left by the
theory of evolution. The crisis is shown in “Dover Beach” as the poet says -

“ the light / gleams and is gone,”

Here the flickering light of faith in God shows the melancholy felt by the Victorians, when they were
faced with Darwin‟s observations.

The speaker says -

“The Sea of faith / Was Once,too,at the full, and round the earth‟s shore.”

The sea of faith was once strong and formed a protective covering around the continents, is now
remained only a “long withdrawing roar”.

The Victorians have been suffering an internal crisis of faith, and thus to survive, the speaker makes
a plea to his beloved that they should remain true to each other. Love is the only solace that can help
one survive the crisis of faith.

Question : Describe the crisis of faith during the Victorian Era with reference to Matthew
Arnold‟s poem”Dover Beach “.

Answer : The Victorian Era is regarded as the era of change and growth. With the onset of
industrial Revolution, the pillar of faith supporting society was perceived as crumbling under the
weight of scientific theories such as Darwinism and Lamarckism etc.

With the growth of science and technology, the idea of realism also entered into the society. People
thought that science and technology had made them superior over nature and they began to doubt
the existence of God.

Loss Of Faith-

Before the time of machineries, people had faith in God. This faith gave people hope and modesty
under the mighty existence of God. But all the hope and modesty disappeared with the Industrial
Revolution. Matthew Arnold, laments in the poem “Dover Beach “ for the lack of spirituality and loss
of faith.

Arnold has used the metaphor of “ sea” to demonstrate the loss of faith among people during
Victorian Age. The poem begins with the description of the natural beauty of Dover Beach, where the
sea is calm, suggesting a world that is peaceful, harmonious and filled with joy. There is no thoughts,
emotions or doubts but only images that are quiet. But a discordant note is seen from the fourth
line “On the French coast the light gleams and is gone”.

Suggesting the flickering of faith in God by flickering of light.

The crisis of faith is furthered in the poem when Arnold talks about the

“ melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,/ retreating …….”

These lines give a feeling of lost hope, abandoned faith and a longing to return to the olden days.

Sorrow Caused By Loss Of Faith-

Matthew Arnold was deeply troubled by the loss of faith. He referred the ancient Greek playwright,
Sophocles, who long ago heard the eternal note of sadness on the Aegeon Sea, which brought to his
mind human misery.

“…..brought/ Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery”
Here a comparison has been drawn between human misery and the sea ebbing and flowing.

Arnold not only compares the human misery with the sea, but also he used the metaphor of “Sea” for
the faith in God. He says -

“The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full and round earth‟s shore….”

The human faith in God was once so strong and protective “like the folds of a bright girdle”. It was
suggestive that the sea of faith in God was strong and protective for the people from all the doubt and
despair just like a girdle of sea wraps itself around the continents and islands of the world.

The poet is troubled by the fact that the “ Sea of Faith “ has receded. It was once at its “ flow “ but
now is at its “ebb”. He further says that he could only hear the “ melancholy, long withdrawing
roar “, which suggested that the sad sound of retreating waves on the shore, sounded like the death
throes of Christian era.

Poet further says that the faith in God and religion had provided a relief from the sufferings and
doubts about the existence, has now been removed by the development of science. This led man to
question about the faith and ultimately decline it. This decline has caused the human mind to remain
uncovered and unprotected like “ naked shingles “, remained after retreating of waves from the
shore. It brings to mind a dreary feeling of helplessness as though the mind is left stripped and bare
on the vast and dreary edges of unknown land.

The most bitter expression of the poet‟s view about loss of faith is presented in the last stanza. He
says that the world which appears to have variety, beauty and freshness is in reality a place which
has

“ …neither joy, nor love, nor light/

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.”

The world without the faith in God and religion, is like a darkling p lain, unreal and deceptive. It is like
a battlefield at night where soldiers run after shadows and fire at them , unable to tell friend from foe.

This suggests that due to decline in faith, humanity stands on the brink of chaos, surrounded in
encroaching darkness by destructive forces and therefore unable to distinguish between the friend
and foe. However the only solace that the poet finds in this crisis is love.

Thus, the poem “Dover Beach” is suggestive of the crisis of faith during the Victorian Era and waning
power of religion to give unity and meaning to human life.

CROSSING THE BAR

Question: Do you think there is a hidden meaning in the poem „Crossing the Bar‟? Give
reasons for your answer.
Answer: Alfred, Lord Tennyson a great English poet wrote „ Crossing the Bar‟ in 1889. The poem at
first glance appears to be an objective poem, in which the poet tells about a voyage in which a ship is
going to cross a sand bar. But apart from its literal meaning there is a deep hidden meaning in the
poem.

The poem deals with the speaker‟s concern about his approaching, inevitable death. It also highlights
his accepting and calm attitude about the end of his life.
The poet has used the metaphor of a ship sailing into the sea to represent the journey of life and
a „sand bar‟ — which is a ridge between harbour and the sea as a spiritual boundary that separates
the temporal world and the limitless regions beyond.

The poem opens up with the metaphor “ sunset and evening star” which are symbolic of onset of
evening when evening star (Venus) rises in the sky. They refer to the last stage of the speaker‟s life.

A ship is scheduled to sail on a long voyage at sunset when the evening star rises in the sky. After
the formal announcement, the “one clear call” the ship would sail out of the harbour, across the
sandbar at the entrance of the harbour, into the vast ocean.

The poet wants to say that as the Sun is setting and the day is about to end, his life is also drawing to
an end. He can hear the clear call of death which is the signal for the speaker that his death is
nearing.
The poet further says -
“ And may there be no moaning of the Bar
When I put out to sea”
The speaker prays that when his ship put out into the sea, there may be “ no moaning of the bar “.

Here the sand bar is personified as when the waves crash against the sand bar, they make a gloomy
moaning sound.

Here the poet suggests that one should accept his imminent death calmly, without fear. There should
not be any moaning, sorrow or lament to know the coming of death.

Then the speaker wishes for a tide that is “ too full for sound and foam” which help his ship to
cross the sand bar easily and reach his destination.

Here “tide” represents the experience of dying. The speaker wishes that feelings of death will be so
overwhelming that all the other feelings will be numbed. The speaker suggests that when a tide is so
full then it moves in such a way that it appears to be quiet and calm and “ asleep “, it can neither
produce any sound nor foam.

As the tide came from the deep found sea and now going back to its home from where it came.

Similarly, the act of dying is merely a part of the cycle of birth and death. The “ going out “ i.e. death,
is a “ return home”to the “boundless deep” from which all the mortals come. His soul will return
back to eternity. Thus the speaker finds comfort in the fact that his journey is not only a departure but
homecoming also.

The poet again uses metaphor “Twilight” and “evening bell” which literally refers to the end of the
day and after that it will be “dark”. But he hopes for a cheerful farewell as his ship is going to start a
new journey.

Allegorically, “ twilight “ refers to the last moment of the speaker‟s life, when he can hear the “
evening bell” which indicates his upcoming death. Here evening bell appears like death knell, which
is rung when somebody dies.

After twilight there will be nothing but “darkness” here darkness imply for death.

The speaker further hopes for a cheerful farewell or departure as he is going to start a new journey
towards eternity.

The speaker is quite hopeful that this flood will bear his ship to the “ boundless deep” which is
beyond the limits of “ Time and Place” when he will “ cross the bar” he will be able to see
the “Pilot” of his ship.
The speaker is cheerful in the hope that the “ flood “ of hope will take him far beyond the limits of
Time and Place i.e. eternity, which is the home to his soul.

Then he will be able to see his “ Pilot” face to face.

“I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar”.
Here by capitalising the word Pilot, the speaker refers to God, who like a skilled mariner will take his
ship beyond the limits across the Bar .

These lines clearly indicate that the poet believes in afterlife. He believes that dying is just a stage
and afterlife a return home to eternity.

By using the word Pilot for God, the poet pointing him as the great power that controls and guides our
lives.

Thus “ Crossing the Bar” refers to the act of passing beyond the life. The poem is all about
accepting and embracing death rather than fearing the dark unknown.

Question : Why do you think the poet has used the word “pilot” to refer the God in the poem
„Crossing the Bar‟? Give reasons to support your answer.
Answer : The poem „Crossing the Bar‟ by Alfred Lord Tennyson, describes a voyage across the sand
bar at the harbour‟s entrance into the sea. But the poem has a deeper meaning.

Here the poet has used the metaphor of a ship sailing into the sea to represent the journey of life and
the „sand bar‟- a geographical boundary of sand between harbour and ocean, refers to a spiritual
boundary, one that separates the temporal world and the limitless regions beyond.

A ship is scheduled to sail on a long voyage at sunset when the evening star (Venus) has risen in the
sky. After a formal announcement, the “one clear call”, the ship would sail out of the harbour,
across the sand bar into the vast ocean.

Allegorically, the poem describes the final journey of a man towards death. “ Sunset” and “evening
star” are the metaphor used to describe the speaker‟s old age, as the end of the day represent the
end of his life. Similarly “Twilight” and “ evening bell” are also the metaphor used to represent his
last moment of life and death knell which is the signal his upcoming death.

“And after that the dark “

Where”dark” refers to his death.

The poet hopes that -

“And may there be no moaning of the bar “
and also -
“ And may there be no sadness of farewell “,
Means the speaker hopes for a painless and smooth death. He is also calm and has an accepting
attitude towards death as he hopes for a cheerful departure, one with” no sadness of farewell
“ when he embarks on a new journey.

The poet hopes for a departure that would be without much noise , so he wishes for a tide, that is “
too full for sound and foam” ,would help him to reach his final destination. The speaker wishes that
feelings of death will be so overwhelming that all the other feelings will be numbed and death will
come to him as returning “home”.

The speaker is trying to diminish the horror of death by drawing attention to the fact that dying is
merely a part of the cycle of birth and death. The going out in the sea is not just death but is a return
home to “ boundless deep” from which all mortals come.
The allegorical meaning of “Crossing the Bar” is the act of dying. The speaker wishes to cross the
bar cheerfully with “no sadness of farewell” as the journey into death would lead him far beyond
the limits of “Time and Place” and make it possible for him to see the “Pilot” of his ship.

The physical world that we inhabit is referred to as the “bourne of Time and Place”. The poet
knows that the flood will take him far from the limits of Time and Place and he hopes to see his pilot
i.e. God face to face when he has crossed the bar.

Here the “ flood” is referred to one‟s faith, the high tide of faith will drown the dangerous sand bar
and help him sail away.

The use of the term Pilot is of great importance. The Pilot is a qualified mariner who steers the ship
up to the final destination.
The idea of God being the Pilot of one‟s ship is a recurrent theme in Christianity. In Seafaring Britain,
the Pilot was also a person who detected the deceptive sand bars and guided the sailors to a safer
route towards the sea.

“Pilot” here refers to God as He is the one who guides the destiny of human beings through every
thick and thin.

The Pilot, in the poet‟s own words refers to “the Divine Presence” — God, a great power that
controls and guides human life.

Question : Explain the symbolism present in the poem, „Crossing the Bar‟ .

Answer : Symbolism is a literary device which implys with the use of symbols to signify ideas and
qualities and give meaning different from their literal meanings

Tennyson has used a number of symbols in the poem “Crossing the Bar”, to enrich the poem and
reveal the significance and deeper meaning of the poem.

The symbol used in the poem are as follows

Symbol. Deeper meaning

● sunset. : end of the life

●enening star. : Venus, advance age and last time of the speaker

●clear call. : reminder of upcoming death

●evening bell : death knell, a sound that reminds the speaker it‟s time to go

●bar (sand bar) : boundary between life and death

●tide. : experience of dying, moving calmly and securely

●boundless. : Ocean, i.e. eternity

●home. : afterlife, being born again

●twilight : last moment of life

● dark : death

● embark. : leaving the land of living and heading off the afterlife

●bourne. : boundary or limits

● flood. : Sea, death

●far. : Unknown place

● Pilot. : God, who has been steering him on this course the whole time

●sea. : death

● sailing. : Journey towards death

● crossing. : act of dying

Significance of symbols :

Significance of these symbols in depicting the theme of the poem -

The main theme of the poem is “Death and dying “. In this short meditative poem Lord Tennyson
had drawn a parallel between a routine journey and the journey into death.

The poet has used the metaphor of a ship sailing into the sea to represent the journey of life and
a sand bar — which is a ridge between the harbour and the open ocean as the barrier between life
and death.

If the sand bar is Tennyson‟s metaphor for the boundary between life and death the “ Crossing the
Bar” is all about crossing from life to death, i.e. act of dying.

But the poem is not just about death , it is also about what comes before death in most cases — old
age.

The “sunset and evening star” are symbolic of getting old. As the evening star appears in the sky
at the time of sunset when the day ends metaphorically it refers the end of the life of the speaker.

“And one clear call for me!”

The sunset and evening star act like a”call” for the speaker to make his final journey from life to
death. Thus he can hear a “ clear call” of death.

Literally the ship is about to sail on a long voyage at sunset when the evening star rises in the sky.
After a formal announcement the “clear call” the ship would sail out of the harbour across the sand
bar into the vast ocean.

The vast ocean is a symbol of death. When the waves crash against the sand bar a gloomy —
moaning sound is produced. Here the poet compares this moaning sound with the pain and sorrow
related with death. He says -
“ And there may be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea. “
The speaker hopes that when his ship will cross the sand bar there should be no moaning sound of
the bar. Allegorically he hopes for a painless and smooth death without moaning.

The speaker wishes for a tide that is “Too full for sound and foam” means a tide that is so full that
it can not produce any sound and foam and hence it appears as moving “ asleep”.
Here he hopes that the feeling of death will be so overwhelming that all other feelings will be numbed.

As the tide return again to the “ boundless deep” i.e. ocean from where it came, his soul will also
be return to its home i.e. eternity.

The speaker is trying to diminish the horror of death by drawing attention towards the fact that death
is a part of the cycle of birth and death. For him death is just a returning home.
“ Twilight and evening bell
And after that the dark”

Here “Twilight” is a symbol of last moments of his life and “evening bell” refers to the death knell,
sound of which reminds him of his upcoming death. After this twilight, there will be nothing but” the
dark “

But the speaker hopes to cross the bar cheerfully with “no sadness of farewell “ as the journey in
death would lead him far beyond the limits of “Time and Place”. There will be possible for him to see
his Pilot face to face.

“ I hope to see my Pilot face to face

He hopes that when the “flood” of death will take him far beyond the limits of Time and Place, he will
be able to see the God face to face. Here by capitalizing the word “Pilot” the speaker refers to God,
who as a skilled mariner will take his ship beyond the limits , across the bar.

These lines indicates the poet‟s belief in afterlife as he believes that dying is simply a stage and
afterlife — a return home to eternity . Here the poet has used the word Pilot for God as the great
power that controls and guides our lives.

Thus the poem is all about death and accepting death rather than fearing the dark unknown.

Question : The speaker‟s departure from the harbour (from life) and entry into the ocean is not
really a departure. It is a way returning home. Discuss with reference to the poem, “crossing
the Bar”.
Answer: Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote this poem “ Crossing the Bar” as his metaphorical meditation
on Death.

In this poem the poet has drawn a parallel between a routine journey of a ship with the journey of life
into death.

The poet has used the metaphor of a ship sailing into the sea to represent the journey of life across a
sand bar. Literally the Bar refers to the sand bar, which is a ridge of sand built up by currents along a
shore. Allegorically it is a demarcation between life and death.

Crossing the bar is an act of crossing the sand bar between the harbour and the ocean or we can say
an act of passing from life to death i.e. crossing the bar refers to the act of dying.

The ship is scheduled to set out on a voyage on “sunset” when the “evening star” will appear.
After “one clear call” or formal announcement it will start it‟s journey to ocean. Allegorically, the
speaker want to say that with the end of the day, his life has also come to an end and he can hear
the final announcement of his death as his advanced age has come.

The speaker wants no “moaning of the bar” when he puts “out to sea”. He wants a painless and
easy and smooth death.

The poet wants a “ tide” which is so full that it cannot contain more sound and foam and seems
like “asleep” when it carries the ship across the sandbar.

The speaker here hopes that his end will come quietly and without any turmoil and his soul will return
to eternity just like the tide returns to the depth of “boundless deep” ocean.
“When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home”.
The speaker finds comfort in the fact that his journey is both a departure and a homecoming. It is
suggestive of the fact that journey from life to death is merely a part of a cycle of birth and death,
which every human being has to go through.
Another aspect of these above mentioned lines are as the river and the sea express the kind of death
he wishes for himself.

The water from the sea evaporates and turns into clouds, these clouds bring rain, entering that water
into the rivers and these rivers too flow, carrying their water and eventually pouring it into the sea.
Thus they complete a cycle and the water returns from where it came.

Similarly the speaker considers himself like the water, says that he is returning from where he came.
Here the word “ boundless deep” literally refers to sea but in an allegorical meaning it refers to a
place where he will go to after his death.

The poet believes that his soul belongs to a place which is “boundless deep” and far beyond the
limits of Time and Place i.e. eternity. He believes that after his death his soul will return to the place
from where it originally belong to , which is its home. Thus the act of dying is partly departure from
this world and partly the homecoming of the soul to the another world. This way the cycle of life and
death will be persistent.

Here the poet shows a calm and accepting attitude while he feels no pain and fear and no reluctance
at the prospect of leaving life. As he is hopeful to see the “Pilot” of his ship i.e. the almighty God
face to face after death. As he says -

“I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar. “
These lines reveals that the poet believes in the phenomena of afterlife, where he will be reached into
another world after”Crossing the Bar” and can see the God face to face.

Here the poet points out that the death does not mark the end , it marks a new beginning as it is a
part of the cycle of birth and death.

Thus the journey towards death is not really a departure but a voyage returning home.

THE DUCKLING THRUSH

Question : How has Hardy depicted nature in his poem “The Darkling Thrush”?

Answer: In “ The Darkling Thrush “, Thomas Hardy has depicted nature as indifferent to the
existence of mankind and its suffering. The poem is about the death of hope in the nineteenth century
for having lost the faith in no other benevolent force.

Hardy has used nature and its elements to depict the passing of nineteenth century along with the
dark world full of uncertainty. The death of hope and loss of faith is depicted through a barren
landscape in a wintry, frosty evening.

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker describes himself as standing at the entrance of a small
wood “ a coppice “. The first of the metaphor used by Hardy to suggest death is the adjective used
to describe the frost -

“spectre — grey” i.e. as grey as a ghost means it is not just grey but ghostly grey with the
cold feeling of death.

“The weakening eye of day”, the sun sinking towards horizon, has none of the sun‟s usual
connotation of brightness and warmth instead it depicts the gloominess and dullness.

The “ winter — dregs “ — the leftover of winter, the “frost” or falling snow make the landscape to
appear desolate or deserted. The approach of night and darkness, further the idea of death already
implied by the reference to winter and the “spectre — grey” frost.
As the speaker looks up through the leafless and tangled bine stems, they looked like strings of
broken lyre pointing at the sky. The broken lyre which can not produce music this suggests the
absence of harmony and therefore of joy in the speaker‟s vision of life.

The poet has given an implied contrast between the warmth of the household fires and the cold and
loneliness of the speaker.

“ And all mankind that haunted nigh

Had sought their household fire “

In the second stanza, the land‟s sharp features have been compared with the “Century‟s
corpse”.since nothing is growing the fields are bare and the frost is covering everything and the
landscape looks like a corpse. It is the time of the end of the century which is metaphorically implied
as “ the death of the old world” hence the corpse belongs to the dead old century. The poet has
developed the image further by comparing the “cloudy canopy” to the cover of the century‟s tomb
and the shrill sound of the cold wind to a “death lament”.

Here the wintry setting symbolises the loss of hope where the hope is generally associated with the
spring. He says -

“The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry.”

As the seeds germinate in spring, the life force, the pulse of life responsible for germination of seeds
and giving birth to new life are shrunken to hard and dry in this cold winter. The poet calls human
being on this earth, including himself “spirits” which have become “fervourless” or lack passion for
life.

Thus Hardy has deromanticised the nature by taking away even the capacity for renewal. While the
Romantics like W. Wordsworth, often depicted nature as awe — inspiring and full of meaning.
Hardy‟s speaker, finds no hope, no inspiration in the process of natural world. Even the Thrush, the
harbinger of hope, is „ aged‟ and on its last song.

The entire poem has portrayed a bleak picture of nature and the gloom is emphasised far more than
the joy.

Inspite of this gloomy weather conditions, the poem ends with alone of hopefulness with the melody
of a thrush which has probably found a way out to be happy in the distressed time too.

Question : Do you think “The Darkling Thrush” is a befitting title for the poem by Thomas
Hardy ? Give reason.

Answer: The title of the poem “The Darkling Thrush” has been appropriately selected by the poet.
The word “darkling” means — growing darkness or in the dark, while the “Thrush” is a singing bird,
that is grey or brown in colour with a spotted body.

The word “darkling” has a wide history in poetry. The word was first used in poetry by Milton, in mid
fifteenth century, in Paradise Lost. Keats used the word in his “Ode to a Nightingale”, Matthew
Arnold in “ Dover Beaches “ wrote about the “darkling plain”, and in a number of poems
by Wordsworth.

The word “ darkling “ corresponds to two meanings in the poem — “in the dark” and “obscure”.

In the title of the poem — “ The Darkling Thrush “, Hardy appears to have used the literal meaning of
“ darkling “ as “in the darkness” or “becoming dark”.
The despair and hopelessness inside speaker is presented as the darkness outside. As the poem
starts with the “ weakening eye of day “ means when the sun is about to set,the the landscape that
appears to him is barren and grey — “spectre — grey” like a ghost. The day is ending and the sun
is setting making the twilight desolate. The darkness all around is increasing both literally and
metaphorically. It also refers to the darkness of ignorance and the and the scientific progressions that
have engulfed the era.

The period in which the poet lives was characterised by growing industrialisation, distrust in religion
and ignorance. The poet yearns for the simpler, truer world that is lost and the outlook for the new
century is bleak.

When he sees the desolated countryside devoid of farmers and native rural people he feels sorrow
for the nature and isolated from the whole world. All other people have gone to the comfort of their
homes in this frosty — gloomy evening. There is a lack of human emotions. The image of tangled
bine — stems resembling the strings of broken lyres vividly conveys the utter silence of the scene.

The speaker compare the features of the landscape to that of a corpse, the corpse of the passing old
century. He compares the shrill sound of cold wind with death lament and the “cloudy canopy” as
the cover of the tomb of nineteenth century. He also describes the seeds which were fresh and full of
vitality during the spring season, but are now shrunken and dry. The very “pulse” of creation is dead
and the nature is at a standstill. There is no hope for the next spring to come.

In the last two stanza, nature as represented by the singing thrush, displays a sudden vigour. Here
too, nature is “senseless” in as much as the song doesn‟t arise from anything perceived
in “terrestrial things”. That is, the song is not inspired by anything in the immediate scene, or
anything that the poet might understand as a reason for the song. The frailty of the bird itself, “ gaunt
and small “ with “blast beruffled plumage” also prevents any song.

If the bird is “in the dark” singing at night and flinging its soul into the “growing gloom”, it appears
to be singing for obscure reasons. Whatever prompts the birds song is not evident to the poet.

The thrush sings a joyful melody, and the happiness starts spreading around. The poet capitalises
the “ H” in “Hope”, thereby to personified as it is blessed by God. The “ illimited joy “ of the song
and “blessed hope” it signifies, appears to be a small compensation for the pain men and women
endure and have endured through the century. If the bird sings while humanity confronts the
desolation of its existence, the thrush‟s joy can only be heard as an ironic comment on humanity‟s
joyless state. The song of the bird at night though full of joy and hope, does not bring any hope for
the future and is as obscure as night.

Thus, “ The Darkling Thrush” is an apt title for the poem.

Question : “The Darkling Thrush” is a poem of despair of hopelessness. Do you agree ?

Answer: The main theme of “The Darkling Thrush” written by Thomas Hardy is despair and
isolation.

In this meditative poem, the poet describes the dying of the old world at the turn of the century. The
poet feels that the Industrial Revolution has brought about several changes in the society, polity,
economy and religious beliefs. He feels that all has changed, civilisation has decayed and he does
not know what will replace it. This feeling brought a sense of hopelessness and despair in the poem.

Hardy felt terribly depressed about the ways the Industrial Revolution destroyed man‟s relationship
with nature. He highly valued humankind‟s relationship with nature, and believed it superior to man‟s
relationship with technology and machinery.

As the technology and industrialisation Influenced the human society, Hardy felt that humanity was
lost. He can see nature‟s suffering. Everywhere he looks, the natural world appears to be dying . He
yearns for that simpler, truer world and seeks to recapture something that is lost but old century is
dead and the outlook for the new century is bleak.

All his feeling of despair and hopelessness, Hardy put into his poem” The Darkling Thrush “. The
poem begins with the speaker leaning on a “ coppice gate “ which is the symbol of beginning of new
century. The bitter hopelessness of a cold winter‟s evening are stressed by the imagery : “Frost”, “
spectre — grey”, “dregs”, “desolate”, “weakening eye”, “ broken “ and haunted are unified and
emphasised by their suggestion of cold, weakness and death.

There are plenty of heavy, gloomy “g” sounds — “gate”,”grey”,”dregs”. Then there are
hard “c” sounds in stanza two — “corpse”, “ crypt “, “ cloudy canopy “ — which evoke the
funeral march and the burial of the personified “century”.

The speaker was feeling gloomy and desolated and tired on a barren landscape on a wintry, frosty
evening. The frost made the landscape “ spectre — grey” which mean not just gloomy grey but
ghostly grey -with a feeling of death. This adds an element of horror in the landscape. The “winter
dregs”made the “ weakening eye of the day” or the setting of the sun more desolate. At this time
tangled bine stems appears like broken strings of lyres which suggests a lack of harmony and joy in
the atmosphere. The poet is feeling desolated and dejected as he was standing all alone looking at
the barren cold landscape devoid of the people outside their houses. All the mankind were seeking
the warmth in front of household fire, inside their houses.

The poet compare the passing of nineteenth century with the death of old world. The century‟s end
seems to have made the regular winter more bitter this time. The cloudy sky seems to be covering
“The century‟s corpse”. The shrill sound of wind resembles the death to life pulse which gives birth to
life seems to be weakened with cold. The seed of life instead of germinating, seems to be “shrunken
hard and dry”.

At this very moment the poet says -

“ And every spirit upon earth

Seemed fervourless as I”

Every spirit on this earth seems similarly desolate as the speaker himself.

Suddenly the speaker hears the “full hearted” voice of a bird rising above the “bleak twigs”, he
looks up to find a haggered, old thrush “ frail, gaunt and small “ singing loudly.

Despite of the bird‟s “blast — beruffled‟ appearance means its feathers ruffled by the wind it sings a
joyful song —

“In a full hearted evensong

Of joy illimited "

The speaker wonders, why the bird would choose this gloomy moment to “fling his soul” upon the
growing gloom. Where there is nothing to be happy about then why this poor bird produce such an
“ ecstatic sound”.

The image of the thrush — “ aged “, “ gaunt “ and “frail” could not brought in much hope for the
speaker but symbolise the decay of something good. Then finally he found

“Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware ".

He says when there was no real reason nearby or far away for his song , it may be some “blessed
Hope” which was a reason to be happy at all that the speaker was unaware of.
Thus”The Darkling Thrush “ creates a feeling of hopelessness and despair in the reader.

Question : Discuss “The Darkling Thrush” as an elegy for the troubled nineteenth century.

Answer: The poem “The Darkling Thrush” was written towards the end of the nineteenth century , by
Thomas Hardy. The poem entirely represents the sadness and hopelessness of the Victorian Era.

Hardy was troubled by the continued process of industrialisation which caused the depletion of rural
agricultural society and rural custom and traditions. In this poem, the poet expresses his despair and
sadness regarding this decay of traditional and natural world.

The Victorian era was marked by the intense and rapid change in politics, society and religious
beliefs due to new scientific developments brought in by rapid industrialisation in England.

Industrialisation has changed the human behaviour and his relation to their environment During the
Victorian era, technologies such as the railways, electricity, steam engines and suspension bridges
reshaped the working lives of millions of British.

People tend to move from rural areas to industrial cities in search of work there. This caused a great
agricultural depression due to decrease in number of farmers.

The race of colonisation in European countries resulted in many wars, this also degraded the loving
conditions of urban labourers. They were now cut off from the any relationship to the land but also cut
off from the products of their work.

Technological progress and scientific knowledge had not only brought enlightenment to the masses,
but also caused to change their religious beliefs, resulting in their misery and pain.

Hardy‟s hopelessness is mainly due to the abandoned farms of the countryside and for the loss of
rural customs and tradition

The poet feels that he had lost his connection with the nineteenth century and has no hopes for the
coming twentieth century. Thus the elegy not only laments the dying nineteenth century but also the
coming of twentieth century where there is no hope for a better future.

The use of words in the poem, like — “spectre grey”, “ winter‟s dregs made desolate “, “
weakening eye of day “, “ strings of broken lyre “, “ the Century‟s Corpse “ and”the cloudy
canopy “ all represent the hopelessness and dejection of the speaker and he finally says -

“And every Spirit upon earth

Seemed fervourless as I”

At the gloomy — dark, cold winter night of last day of old century, the poet feels that every living thing
on this earth is as despair ed as him. He feels so lack of passion and energy for the future.

The use of several imagery of grave and of death in the poem prove it to be a lament or elegy; which
is lament on someone‟s death.

“The land‟s sharp features seemed to be

The Century‟s corpse outleant,

His crypt the cloudy canopy

The wind his death — lament”

In the above quoted lines the poet compares the bleak landscape with the “death” of the passing
century, with phrases like — “The Century‟s corpse outleant” to describe the sharp gloomy
features of the landscape with the old century‟ s corpse. He used the metaphor — “ cloudy canopy
“ for the cover of the tomb and “death lament” for the crying of shrilling cold wind.

He was greatly disturbed to see the desolate farms, devoid of the farmers who were moved towards
the Industrial cities.

He finds himself in a barren gloomy landscape isolated from the other people who found the warmth
of their household fire inside their houses. He has no hope of getting any warmth.

This hopelessness on the speaker‟s part is reflected throughout the poem. Though later on , we hear
a thrush singing a “ full hearted evensong “

“In a full hearted evensong

Though the song is full of unlimited joy but its appearance of “An aged thrush , frail gaunt and
small”

The small, weak and aged appearance could not brought in much hope for the speaker. This aged
bird who “flying his soul” out on the gloomy night is himself symbolise nothing but the decay of
something good.

Though the thrush finds hope in this gloomy night but the speaker is puzzled that from where it get
such hope, when there is nothing to be happy about.

“Some blessed Hope, where of he knew

He could feel that the bird find some optimism in something it knows, the poet cannot believe in that.
He is still unaware of any source of joy or hope.

This way the entire poem is an elegy for the troubled nineteenth century.

Question : In what way is the poem"The Darkling Thrush " an attempt by the poet to search
for meaning in the world?

Answer: The poem"The Darkling Thrush " is an attempt by Thomas Hardy to search for
meaning in the world which is moving on from the old world to the new.

The growth of industrialisation and urbanisation had changed human beings and their relationship
with their environment. It also caused to agricultural depression due to decrease in numbers of
farmers, as people had moved towards the Industrial cities. The wars fought by the British Empire to
prove herself as the leading power of the world also degraded the living conditions of urban
labourers. They were now cut off from any relationship to the land but also cut off form the products
of their work.

Technological progress and scientific knowledge had not only brought enlightenment to the
masses, but they also brought more misery and pain. Hardy's hopelessness is mainly due to the
abandoned farms of the countryside and for the loss of rural customs and traditions.

Hardy himself mourned the passing of agricultural society and saw little cause to celebrate
England's rapid industrialisation, which helped destroy the customs and traditions of rural life. He
finds no hope for humanity's future.

He feels himself as an isolated man from those who have "sought their household fires". He has
lost his connection with the nineteenth century and has no hopes for the coming twentieth century.
He is saddened by the fact that the old century is dying and there is nothing to replace it.

The poet in the poem is melancholic and "fervourless".

He " leans upon a coppice gate "as the sun sets - "the weakening eye of day" and meditates the
century that is almost over, as well as the century that is about to begin.

He is also surrounded by the "dregs"of winter and several images of death eg.- "haunted",
"corpse " and"death lament ", pervade the poem.

The decay of the old world depicted in the poem through " spectre - grey "landscape, the
weakening of "eye of day" and"winter - dregs" which offer little to satisfy the human needs of warmth.
He describes the previous century as a "corpse". The implication is that the speaker has no hope for
the coming century and sees no meaning in life. He says -

" The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry"

Here he wants to say that there is no sound and the very "pulse" of creation or the life force
responsible to create this world, is dead and the nature is at a standstill.

In the third stanza, however he hears and then sees an "aged thrush" singing in such a dark and
hopeless night, this thrush gives him some meaning.

"In a full hearted evensong

Of joy illimited"

The thrush sings "full hearted" and "flings his soul / Upon the growing gloom", even though
he is " aged ", " frail ", " gaunt and small'. This offers the speaker some"blessed Hope" and meaning
seems to lie in that hope.

The speaker wonders that when there is nothing to be happy about then why the poor little weak
bird had chosen to sing such a joyful song. He could not find any terrestrial cause.

Question : Discuss “The Darkling Thrush” as a representing the death of hope and bleak
future.

Answer : In the poem”The Darkling Thrush “ the poet describes his own feelings and also the
feelings of an entire nation at the passing of a century and transition between the Victorian era and
the modern era. The Victorian era was marked by the intense and rapid change in politics, society
and religious beliefs due to the developments in science and technology. These changes created a
feeling of hopelessness and bleak future in the poet‟s mind which is reflected in the poem .

The growth of industrialisation and urbanisation had changed human beings and their relationship
with their environment. It also caused to agricultural depression due to decrease in number of
farmers as people had moved towards the Industrial cities.

Technological progress and scientific knowledge had not only brought enlightenment to masses , but
they also brought more misery and pain. Hardy‟s hopelessness is mainly due to the abandoned farms
of the countryside and the loss of rural customs and traditions.

The poet feels himself as an isolated man. He has lost his connection with the nineteenth century and
has no hopes for the coming twentieth century. He is saddened by the fact that the old century is
dying and there is nothing to replace it.

In the poem the poet expresses his despair and hopelessness regarding the decay of traditional and
natural world. He is unaware of what is in store for humanity in the upcoming century and finds no
hopes for something positive. For this reason Hardy creates a bleak picture of the world around him
— to express the hopelessness and dejection in his mind through the picture of a desolate and dead
landscape.
The speaker, leaning on a gate looks at the darkening countryside. The landscape around him is
gloomy and barren. He finds the setting Sun as “ a weakening eye”and the land which is covered
with Frost is “ Spectre — grey”.

“ The Frost was Spectre — grey”

“And Winter‟s dreg made desolate The weakening eye of day”

The land appears to him ghost like grey. While the falling snow as a residue of winter made the
setting sun more desolate. There is no music of hope and happiness all around as the strings of
lyres are broken .

The speaker is all alone in the wintry frosty night on a barren landscape while all the other people
were spending time with their families inside their houses -

“Had sought their household fires”

The feeling of loneliness and desolated made the speaker more gloomy and despair dejected.

Loss of Creativity -

The cold ,grey and gloomy landscape appears to him like the dead old century‟s corpse stretched in
front of him. The thick grey heavy clouds seemed to be the cover of the tomb while the shrill sound of
the cold wind, sounds like a death lament for the old century. All these metaphor of death are used to
create a gloomy environment where there is no hope or cheerfulness of any upcoming event. There
is a sense of loss everywhere even the life force which gives birth to living things appears to be
weakened slumbered -

“The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry”

This results in lack of energy and vitality in every spirit indicates the death of hope in world.

Death of Hope -

The speaker is so engrossed in his thoughts of hopelessness that even the joyful song of the thrush
does not heard any hope for the future in the new century.

The thrush, the symbol of hope is depicted as “aged”, “frail”, “ gaunt “ and “small” who is in
danger of being overpowered by the elements of nature. The word “blast beruffled” emphasise the
power of wind and puny and pitiful status of the thrush.

The speaker wondered — why this poor and weak bird would choose this dark,cold and gloomy
moment “to fling his soul” out in a song.

He could not find any terrestrial cause, in the distance or near around which can make the bird to
produce such joyful “ ecstatic sound”.

Bleak Future -

The internal gloominess and despair of the speaker prohibits him to see any hope and the outlook for
the new century appears to be so bleak.

The song of the thrush is an “ evensong “ means a song of evening rather than morning . The song
of the thrush here symbolises the speaker‟s fervourless spirit. The thrush is presented as “aged”, “
frail “ ,”gaunt “ and “small” which doesn‟t symbolise new life but clings to the dyimng old century.
Even after hearing the thrush‟ s
The speaker‟s depression is not recovered but there is a state of puzzlement.

He comes into the new century unable to think about any reason that can make the thrush, a
representative of nature with a hope.

In the last stanza, the poet reveals his lack of faith. There is

“So little cause for carolings”, he could not find any reason for the “ joy illimited”. This joyful song
does not relieve the poets depression. The poem does not show any transformation from the mood of
death into joy of optimism, so the contrast of the thrush‟s song serves to heighten the poet‟s despair.
The corpse of the old century never gives way to the birth of the new. Thus the poem speaks of a
bleak future.

BIRCHES

Birches : Theme of Nature

“ Birches” by Robert Frost is a nature poem. Frost seems to have a close affinity with nature and his
poems are meditative. Often ordinary natural objects suggest something greater in his poem.

The first part of the poem”Birches” (line 1 to 41) consists of a description of nature. Frost has given
many different appearances of birches in summer and in winter.

The poet illustrates how the dark and bending trees catch his attention. When he glances those
birches left to right in the forest, he thinks that “some boy‟s been swinging them”.

The poet assumes that the boy‟s swinging caused bends in their branches.

Later, he realises that these bends might also be caused by ice storm as the weight of ice forces
them to bend toward the ground

“But swinging doesn‟t bend them down to stay

Then he describes the actual cause of bending of branches of birches. He presents a beautiful
picture and vivid description of the birches loaded with ice after a rain in a winter morning.

“They click upon themselves/

As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel”

When it stops raining, in a sunny winter morning, the birches are covered with an enamel of ice.
When the wind blows, the swinging of branches up and down produce a clicking sound. As the rays
of the sun falls on this ice it “turn many colored”. Means as the sunlight passes through the ice it
begins to shine and reflect seven colours of the rainbow.

He further says that this beautiful scene is not long lasting as the warmth of the sun increases, the ice
is cracked and falls on the earth. These small pieces of ice thrown on the earth appear to be the
broken glass as if “the inner dome of heaven had fallen”.

Then Frost presents another visual imagery for the birches with trailing leaves on the ground

“ Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair. Before them over their heads to dry in
the sun”.

He says that some of the trees are bowed down to such an extent that they “never right
themselves” and they appears like girls sitting on their hands and knees hanging down their hair in
front of them as if they are drying their hair in the sun.
Frost imagines a rural boy who lives far away from town and his only entertainment is climbing the
birch trees. In the next few lines the theme of poem changes from beauty of nature to the conquest of
nature.

The poet recalls his childhood days when he himself used to be the swinger of birches. He describes
the technique of climbing and swinging of birches from his own experience.

The boy represents the poet‟s childhood image when he used to be a birch swinger.

The boy “Subdued” his father‟s trees “riding them” until he takes the “stiffness” out of them. This
leaves him absolutely victorious over the trees

“not one was left / For him to conquer”

Frost efficiently describes the technique of climbing and bending the birch trees. He compares the
care and pain to reach the top of each tree with the care to fill a cup -

“Up to the brim, and even above the brim”.

Then he stretches his feet to lower down to the ground without harm. This is suggestive of the fact
that lowering down to the ground is not merely a physical action but a coming back to the real world
after a flight of imagination.

In the second part (line 42 to 59) Frost has used the birch trees to compare the childhood days led in
the closeness to nature and the hardship of an adult life spent apart from nature.

Here Frost describes nature as a pathless wood which represents the adult life with so many
confusion

“ And life is too much like a pathless wood”.

In his adult life, he is tired of his thoughts and his life becomes hard to live, when the “cobwebs” of
confusion and uncertainties troubles him like some twig pinches his eyes and his “one eye is
weeping”.

The boy‟s birch climbing represents the playful time in the world of imagination while his climbing
down to the ground represents the world of reality.

Frost wishes to escape from this earth for “ a while”. He is tired of his adult life and wants to become
a child once again. He wants to become a birch swinger and go to his world of imagination, not for
always but only for a while. He wants to come back on the earth to resume his earthly duties as this
earth is the right place for love.

Here Frost wants to suggest that he wants to return to the innocence and beauty of nature, let nature
refresh him and then to return to the everyday grind of life on earth.

Birches : Theme of Imagination Vs. the Real World

The most important theme of the poem „Birches‟ is the “imagination vs. Reality”. In this poem Frost
used his poetic imagination to surpass the limits of the real world. The poem lets the readers to swing
back and forth between reality and imagination. The speaker rejects the real cause for the birches to
have been bent over in favour of his own fanciful imagination.

The key action described in the poem consists of swinging, free of the constraints of the earth, up
towards heaven and then landing on the ground again. Thus, the speaker takes the reader through a
series of swings back and forth between earthbound realities and imaginative possibilities.

At some level, Frost claims that the act of his imagination expresses a larger “ truth”. Going up on
the birch symbolises the higher world of human ideals, the human desire to withdraw from harsh
realities of life into the happy world of imagination. But on the other hand, he makes it clear that one
must remain within the natural world and that complete escape into the world of imagination is not
possible and not desirable. It is this tension within the poem that makes each world both appealing
and painful. The real world might be a place of pain, but it is also the place for love. The imaginary
world is innocent, but it is solitary and loveless.

The poem opens on an observed phenomenon. On seeing the branches of birches bent down Frost
imagines that some boy might have been swinging them resulting in their bending down.

“When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy‟s been swinging them.”

In the next few lines, the poem swings back towards reality. The poet observes the dismal images of
an ice — storm that made the birches bend and never “right themselves”. The poet seems to be
inspired more by his power of imagination than the reality.

In the next section of the poem, which mainly concerned with the actual “ Truth” about the bending
of birches, the fervour of Frost‟s observations leads him into wild imagination that the birches got bent
by the boys swinging on them.

He imagines the ice crystals scattered around the trees as

“the inner dome of heaven had fallen”.

The next line signals the beginning of a retreat from reality -

“ They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load”

The birches are bent down under the weight of ice and snow until they reach the dried up ferns and
shrubs on the ground. The speaker says that though the trees “seem not to break” but can “never
right themselves”. This means that when the trees are bent down for quite a long time, they cannot
straighten out afterwards and are in a sense of broken.

Again, the speaker‟s imagination rises and he has used a simile, comparing the bowed birch trees to
girls sitting on their hands and knees hanging down their hair in front of them to dry them in the sun.

“ Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Before them over their head to dry in the sun”.

Frost then gives a mythical account of how the birches were bent by a boy. The boy “subdued” all
his father‟s birches into bent — over arches until “not one was left / For him to conquer”.

In doing so the boy has to carefully reach the top of each tree. It is suggestive of the method required
to reach to a realm beyond the real. Here the boy‟s action in climbing the trees is parallel to the poet‟s
act of creating the poem.

The boy‟s conquest of the trees mirrors the victory of poet‟s imagination over the real world, for now
his vision has completely replaced the ice -storm as the cause of the trees condition.

Now Frost swings back to reality in the fourth section through the surprising revelation that he was
once himself

The images of the last ten lines, however present a surprising and harmonious synthesis of the two
extremes. Going up in the air while birch swinging is suggestive of escaping from harsh realities of
the world into the world of fancy, human ideals and aspirations. Coming down on the earth with birch
means accepting the reality as it is and doing all earthly duties.

The poet says -

“ I‟d like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over”

Frost states that he does not want complete escape from the earth,into an imaginary world. He wants
to come back to earth because the earth is “the right place for love”. Instead, he imagines the
milder pleasures of gradually climbing up the tree, “ Toward heaven” and of the gentle descent as
the tree would place him down on the ground.

The poet suggests that one must attain a balance between his earthly duties on earth and his
spiritual aspirations because both are desirable. Only then can one lead a happy, balanced life.

In this way Frost imagines a birch swinging experience that “would be good both going and
coming back”.

Without the conflict between imaginative flight and earthly reality that seemed to prevail earlier in the
poem. In fact, it is the real world that makes it possible for the poet to have his fantasies.

ISC Birches by Robert Frost :line by line explanation and summary

Birches by Robert Frost: Explanation

“When I see……….. As ice storms do.”

The poem begins with the simple image of birches bent “left and right / Across the line of
straighter darker trees.”

Here the poet presents a contrast between the normal and simple image of straighter trees with the
exciting and interesting image of bent down birch trees.

Birches have thin trunks and so they bend easily in the wind and under the weight of snow. When the
poet observes the birches bending to left and right across the lines of straighter and darker eracted
trees in the woods he starts to imagine that a boy had been swinging on them and that is how they
got bent. But in line 4, he acknowledges that the act of swinging from birch trees wouldn‟t actually
make the trees look bent in the way they do now. Rather “ice storms” can bent down the trees
enough to cause them permanently bent.

“Often you must ………..had fallen”.

In these lines the speaker describes the beauty of ice — loaded birch trees in a sunny winter
morning. Here the speaker admits that the birches are actually bend down due to the ice storm and
not due to the boy‟s swinging.

He says, you must often have seen birches loaded with ice on a sunny winter morning after a rain.
The rain coats the tree in a sheet of ice, which forms a transparent freezing enamel around the whole
tree. When the wind blows, birches swing up and down with the clicking sound. The ice on the
birches shines and turns many coloured as the rays of the sun are refracted into many colours, when
passing through the ice. But this beauty doesn‟t last long as the ice upon the birches starts to break
into pieces due to the warmth of the sun. The ice on the birches is shaken and breaks down into
small fragments to fall down on the earth. Here the breaking ice has been compared to shattering
crystals and glass that falls like an avalanche. The shattered ice crystals get collected below the tree
as if it were a pile of glass pieces to be swept away. In this metaphor, the snow crystals have been
compared to the bits of broken glass because of their transparency and their sharpness.
The speaker then imagines the ice crystals scattered around the tree as “the inner dome of heaven
had fallen”.

“ They are ……….in the sun”.

With the burden of ice and snow the birches are bowed, until they reached the dried up ferns and
shrubs on the ground. The speaker says that though the trees “seem not to break” but can “never
right themselves”. This means that the trees are bent down so much and for so long that they are
not in a position to straighten themselves.

Again the speaker‟s imagination rises and he has used a simile, compared the bowed down birch
trees to the girls sitting on their hands and knees, hanging down their hair, in front of them, as if they
are drying their hair in the sun. This simile brings out the delicacy and vulnerability of the birches.

“But I was ……..play alone”.

In these lines the poet dismisses his idea of ice storm as a cause of bending down of birches. He
says — although the reality is that the birches are bend down by snowstorm, but still I would prefer
them to have been bent by a boy who herds cows. The boy might have swung them in his spare time.
I think the boy, looking after his cows and living far away from the town to learn baseball. As he lives
far away from the city so he does not know how to play baseball and does not have any friends. So
he might have devised a game for himself — the game of birch swinging. This game he could play
alone in summer or winter.

“ One by one ………..clear to the ground”.

These lines represent the theme of conquest of nature. The speaker says — the boy found the
game of birch swinging very thrilling. So he had climbed all the birches owned by his father and one
by one bent them all down as if he wanted to conquer all of them. The boy continues to ride them
until he takes the “stiffness” out of them. This leaves him absolutely victorious over the trees:

“not one was left / For him to conquer”.

No tree could stand eract as its stiffness was gone.

The boy learns to get all the way to the top of the tree and not bend it too soon, before he has
reached the top.

“ He always kept ……to the ground”.

In the given lines, the poet describes the technique of climbing and bending of the trees. He says the
boy should take as much care and pain to maintain his poise or balance to reach the top of the tree.
This is as similar to the care that one must take to fill a cup “Up to the brim and even above the
brim”.

Here filling a cup up to the brim and even above the brim express the poet‟s willingness to reach
beyond the limits to a realm beyond the real.

After taking so much care when the boy reaches the top of the tree, then he would fling himself
forward with his feet stretched. Next he kicks his feet, the tree bends just enough so that the boy is
lowered to the ground without any harm.

This is suggestive of the fact that lowering down on the earth is not merely a physical action but a
coming back to the real world after the flight of imagination.

The next few lines show the longingness of the poet to get back his carefree childhood. These lines
show a sharp contrast between the simple, easy life of childhood and the pain of complicated adult
world.
The poet says that once he himself was a swinger of birches and now when he is adult he once again
wants to become a swinger of birches. The poet uses the simile of “pathless wood” for adult life. In
his adult life he is tired of his thoughts and his life becomes hard to live, when the “cobwebs” of
confusion and uncertainty troubles him like some twig pinches his eyes and his “one eye is
weeping”. Then he feels that his life is like a pathless wood where he has lost his path to come out
of it.

The word “ weeping” suggests that the tears do not come simply as a result of cut or bruise but
because of some inner sorrow. “Pathless wood”, “ cobweb”, “weeping” are all metaphors for the
hardships faced by an adult. In these lines the poet brings out the theme of imagined world versus
the real world. The boy‟s birch climbing represents the playful time in the world of imagination. On the
other hand, his coming down to the ground represents the world of reality.

In these lines the poet wishes to escape from this earth for “awhile”. He is tired of his difficult and
complicated adult life, now he wants to escape from it as a child. He wants to become a birch swinger
once again and to forget his difficult adult life, he wants to swing birches. Clearly he wants to escape
into an imaginary world. But he does not want to escape permanently from the real world. He wants
to come back on the earth to resume his earthly duties. The poet wants the fate to “ half —
grant” him a wish to go away from this world, from his responsibilities. The word half grant is of
importance here as he does not want to go away permanently. He wants to return to this world as he
thinks earth to be the right place for love. This way he recognises the fact that there is no better place
than the real world. The limits of the real world must exist to enable the imaginative world which
makes possible the fantasies of poetic imagination.