To Marguerite

“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,

And then their endless bounds they know.

But when the moon their hollow lights,

And they are swept by balms of spring,

And in their glens, on starry nights,

The nightingales divinely sing;

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

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?

Who renders vain their deep desire?--

A God, a God their severence ruled;

And bade betwixt their shores to be

The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

First reactions

I found the poem to be depressing. From a few initial readings, it is my opinion that the author has a negative view of human society in his time, and while this may have quite a bit of truth to it, he attributes this to God. He describes members of this society as isolated from one another, but admits that there was once a time where this was not true. To say “God did it” defers responsibility, as humanity is powerless to change what was set down by an omnipotent power. In extension, it defers responsibility from that society for both maintaining the status quo and not working to reform it.

Paraphrase

In life, humans are separated by vast expanses ("echoing straits") and are isolated from one another, much like islands in the sea. Humans are aware of the separation that exists between them. Additionally, they remember that society was once less alienating ("parts of a single continent") and desire its return, that that longing goes unrequited. The speaker asks who could have denied their desire, answering that it was God that created the separation.

SWIFTT

SW - Arnold begins his poem with an exclamation, "YES." The exclamation is an answer to a question posed later in the poem, affirming that humans are indeed isolated. In the first line of the second stanza, Arnold uses no verb, though it is implied in the second part of the line to mean something like "display." Arnold's vocabularly is appropriate for his time, but they are likely unfamiliar for the modern reader.

I - the main image of the poem is of a vast sea, with millions of small islands separated by huge distances. The sea refers to the world, and more specifically to society. The islands are humans, isolated from one another. Secondary imagery is of glens, balms, the nightingale, and other natural scenery that represents an earlier state. Another is the cavern, a sort of a dead end, representing the despair in longing for that earlier state.

F - most of the figurative language is in the imagery, such as the "sea of life" and the "longing's fire." Another use of figurative language compares longing to despair, explaining that the longing is based on memories of an older, more connected society.

T - Arnold's tone is both passive and depressive, indicating his resignation to what he has observed in society, even when he longs for an older state of things. He projects his emotions on society as a whole, including his audience, and evokes imagery of better times. Then he whisks it away by saying that our longing has long since disappeared.

T - the theme of the poem is one of resignation and yearning in turn. Arnold describes a world where humans are alienated from one another by using imagery of a vast sea and isolated islands, attributing it to God. Though there is a stanza where he reminds the audience of better times, he calls this only a longing, and one since gone at that.

Conclusions

My conclusions are mostly the same as in my initial reactions, though Arnold's use of imagery introduces a further element of longing, though one that immediately gives way to despair as the poem goes on. Isolation is the prevailing problem in the society Arnold sees. However, the main thrust of the poem remains one of passive acceptance of what Arnold perceives as a negative downturn in society.