Both Coleridge’s “The Eolian Harp” and Arnold’s “Dover
Beach” describe an intimate moment between two lovers. The
poets both use nature imagery and classical references to
address their views on love and faith. These views are very
different: Coleridge’s poem presents a very Romantic point of
view, whereas Arnold’s poem takes a more modern
perspective. The speaker in “The Eolian Harp” expresses his
optimistic belief that God is part of both nature and the
relationship he shares with his beloved. In contrast, the
speaker in “Dover Beach” pessimistically sees God as absent
from the world and from his relationship to his beloved
because of a loss of faith.
From the opening of the poems, we can right away
sense the difference in the mood of each speaker. The mood in
Coleridge’s poem is optimistic and hopeful. His beloved is there
with him “on the cot” suggesting their closeness. He uses
nature imagery --“white flowered jasmine, broad-leaved
myrtle”-- to portray “Innocence and Love.” He views nature
and the coming darkness as serene and pleasant. Although he
describes the end of the day as a “slow saddening round,” he is
looking forward to the evening with his beloved: “the star of
eve/Serenely brilliant.” Also, “The stilly murmur of the sea”
adds to the serenity of the intimate scene and emphasizes the
silence of the night. Nature here is therefore part of this
intimate scene.
In the opening of “Dover Beach,” the speaker also uses
the sea to suggest the stillness of the evening, but his use of
imagery suggests a more pessimistic and melancholic scene. In
contrast to the lovers in the Coleridge’s poem, the lovers are
standing apart and seem more distant. Instead of being directly
part of nature, the lovers here are apart from it; they witness it
from a far. He asks his beloved to “Come to the window.” In
addition, nature in the form of the sea does not play a part in
their intimacy; it does not bring serenity. Instead, the
repetitiveness of the waves and the sound of the pebbles bring
“The eternal note of sadness” into their relationship. Hence,
Arnold introduces a more foreboding mood and a seemingly
more negative view of nature and love.
The classical and nature imagery used in both poems
underscores their very different points of view. Coleridge uses
the eolian harp to connect nature to poetic inspiration. He
mixes up the imagery of nature with the sounds of the harp
created by the “desultory breeze.” The sound it creates is
described in fantastical imagery, which suggests the
imagination: “Such a soft floating witchery of sound/As
twilight Elfins make/Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land.”
Moreover, the sound emphasizes the joyful unity of the lovers
as part of nature. The speaker sees these inspiring “Melodies
round honey-dropping flowers” as part of “the one life within
us and abroad.” He is happy because he describes the sounds
as “joyance every where.” Coleridge therefore uses the classical
reference to the harp and the sensual imagery to celebrate
nature and the imagination as contributing to human
happiness.
In contrast, Arnold uses a classical reference and nature
imagery to emphasize human despair. He refers to Sophocles,
the classical philosopher, not to celebrate the poetic
imagination, but to reflect on “ebb and flow/Of human misery.”
As in the first stanza, he uses the wave imagery to portray the
hopelessness of life. The lover here, unlike the speaker in
Coleridge’s poem, does not view any joyful unity of nature and
humanity. Instead, the image of “this distant northern sea”
suggests that nature is indifferent to human suffering.
Moreover, the poems present very different views on God and
faith. Coleridge as a Romantic presents God as ever present in
nature. The speaker in the “The Eolian Harp” theorizes that
nature is “animated.” He associates the images of nature with
human qualities and celebrates nature’s diversity: “organic
harps diversely framed/That tremble into thought,” forming
“one intellectual breeze.” In addition, he sees this diversity of
nature as part of the divine unity: “At once the Soul of each, and
God of All?” This idea of God’s being inseparable from nature is
a Romantic perspective.
Coleridge’s speaker, however, also acknowledges the
more traditional religious faith in God of his beloved. She is a
“Meek daughter in the family of Christ!” who mildly reproves
his “unhallowed” idea that humans and nature are part of God.
She reminds him that God should be praised and he should
“walk humbly” with his God. The speaker seems to accept her
more traditional view as God’s being superior to creation. He
admits that God with “his mercies healed me/A sinful and most
miserable man.” Also, he praises God with “Faith that inly
feels.” Moreover, he is thankful to God for their love – for giving
him “Peace,” “this cot,” and his “heart-honored Maid!”
Therefore, he suggests that he not only has a Romantic belief in
nature, but he also has a Christian faith in God.
In “Dover Beach,” however, the speaker takes a more
modern perspective by acknowledging the loss of faith. He
recognizes that religious faith was at one time universal when
he says, “The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round
earth’s shore.” But now, he can “only hear/Its melancholy, long,
withdrawing roar.” This loss of faith, in his view, makes the
world a desolate and hopeless place as suggested by the image
of “the vast edges drear/And naked shingles of the world.”
Moreover, he suggests that the beauty, peace, and love that
Coleridge celebrates in his poem are illusory because “the
world, which seems/To lie before us like a land of dreams” in
reality has no “joy, nor love, nor light.” Therefore, in this
context, his request to his beloved that they “be true/To one
another!” seems an act of desperation because they are alone
in the world “as on a darkling plain.” In this world “Swept with
confused alarms of struggle and flight,” there seems to be no
meaning to life, and hence no God. Therefore, the poem ends
on a very pessimistic note in contrast to Coleridge’s affirmation
of faith in God.
In conclusion, both poets describe their different views
on love, nature, and faith. Coleridge is more positive because
his poem expresses the Romantic view that God is in nature
and in all human endeavors. However, Arnold portrays a more
negative and hence a more modern view that God is absent
from nature and that humans have lost their faith. The poems
thus use similar imagery and themes to describe very different
points of view.