ENGL 212 Week 4 Discussion

ENGL 212 Week 4 Discussion | regent-university

week 4 question 2

Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold is a poem about a person having an internal battle with their belief in Christ. I believe that is a very familiar concern in society today as with today's culture it is sometimes frowned upon to be a Christian and be proud of it. This is because of the actions of a few hateful Christians who push their bigoted ideas through the forefront, it makes it look like the rest of us look like hypocrites when that is not the case. The speaker is going through what we all go through ( or at least most of us go through) and that is a period of time where our faith is tested or we experience doubt. I know I experienced doubt in my faith when bad things kept happening over and over again to me, and I would question God. But then came to the realization that it was not God doing these things to me but it was myself allowing it to happen. In the poem, the speaker was questioning if Christianity was going to be able to survive the scientific revolution, and Christianity was represented by the Sea. The poem writes, “The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” (Arnold lines 25-27).