"To Marguerite", by Matthew Arnold, 1/9/11

“To Marguerite”, by Matthew Arnold

YES: in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown.
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.
The islands feel the enclasping flow,	5
And then their endless bounds they know.
But when the moon their hollows lights,
And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
The nightingales divinely sing;	10
And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour;
O then a longing like despair
Is to their farthest caverns sent!
For surely once, they feel, we were	15
Parts of a single continent.
Now round us spreads the watery plain—
O might our marges meet again!
Who order'd that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?	20
Who renders vain their deep desire?—
A God, a God their severance ruled;
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

REACTION

The poem is a depressing composition about two lovers that have been split apart in some tragedy. It is a true cliché of poetry and holds little intrinsic value. The man clearly feels like his world is coming to an end and that he is now alone with nothing. Obviously he thinks that it isn’t fair that his lover, who he apparently just fell in love with, has been taken away from him and sent to a faraway place. At the end of the poem, the man feeling so lonely and heartbroken, the man blames God for all of his misfortune.

PARAPHRASE

Yes, in life we are isolated as if on an island, with empty space put between us all. We’re scattered all over the world, and the millions of us live alone. We are all trapped by the flow over everyday life like islands are trapped by the flow of water. When the moon comes out, and the islands are overcome with the comfort of spring, and in the valleys, on starry nights, the nightingales sing; the songs fill the entire island; then a desperate longing is sent to the deepest caverns of the islands! At one point the islands, the people, were one. Now the islands, people, are separate—the narrator wants the people to meet again. Who ordered that once the man and women fell in love that they must be separated? Who keeps them from their deepest desires? God did it, a God whom they once served; now the distance between us is like a sea.

SWIFTT:

·         Syntax/Word Choice- Throughout the poem, the author uses words that express the emotions separation bring about. The author uses phrases such as “longing like despair” to show the desperate urge the lover feels to see his significant other. Also, alliteration is used in the phrase “mortal millions” in the first stanza.

·         Imagery- The use of an island is used vastly throughout the poem. The author also uses birds singing at night in the valleys of these islands. This imagery is designed to portray the loneliness the author wishes to convey. The sea is a powerful image used to represent the forces keeping the lovers apart. Lastly the imagery of the islands once being part of a continent and then separating is a powerful image representing the lovers being one and now two.

·         Figurative Language- Similes and other figurative devices are used to create the imagery of the poem. The author uses phrases such as “a longing like despair” as well to further emphasize the couple’s despair of being apart.

·         Tone- The tone is longing and almost pathetic. The author clearly shows that he longs for his companion as he compares the distance between them to oceans, and seems pathetic because when he is content is when he feels the most longing for his significant other.

·         Theme- The theme of the poem is isolation and separation from a loved one. The poem starts off by stating that all people live alone. It then goes on to discuss how the author feels this due to the separation from a lover.

CONCLUSIONS

My original understanding of the poem was not far off. It was about a couple that has been separated. The tone however was not entirely depressing; in fact it was more of a longing tone. The poem is not a total cliché, and it is filled with great imagery and figurative language. The man did just recently fall in love with his significant other, and he did inevitably blame God for their separation.