Dover Beach and Other Poems

A poet may live for us through a single poem, or even a few lines. For me the poet Arnold is 'Dover Beach'. " Ah Love, let us be true to one another, for the world which seems to lie before us, like a land of dreams, hath really neither joy nor light nor love nor certitude, nor peace nor help from pain, and we are here , as on a darkling plain, swept with confused alarums, of struggle and flight, where Ignorant armies clash by night." This great poem written at the threshhold between an Age Dying and another yet to be born is Arnold's signature piece. I also however recommend, and have some knowledge of his long poem 'Sohrab and Rustum'. Arnold is a poet whose music sometimes fades, but whose quest for moral meaning is regularly present. He is one of those rare human beings who has written a single poem, a few lines which should be remembered for as long as poetry is read and enjoyed.