Matthew Arnold
In Dover Beach, Arnold talks about how some of nature's beauties can actually be full of pain and sadness. The speaker describes a a calm sea and tide crashing on the shore. Typically, the ocean shore can be associated with peace and tranquility, and initially, the speaker describes the ocean as a "tranquil bay"(Arnold, 892). However, as the poem continues, the speaker describes "the turbid ebb and flow of human misery"(Arnold, 892). The speaker talks about how one of the most beautiful aspects of nature, a tide, can be associated with human misery and pain. Even though many of these phenomenons of nature are compared to pain, the speaker does not ignore their beauty. The speaker says that our world is not filled with joy, peace, or pain. However, humans confuse their feelings which is the root cause of the world's pain. When humans witness something as beautiful as an ocean tide, it is their reaction to confuse these feelings which will in turn, produce feelings of pain or sadness. Human tendency to struggle with confusion is how pain has entered into the world.
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