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To Marguerite GCSE English Literature - Poems Deep and Dangerous Study Guide PDF
To Marguerite GCSE English Literature - Poems Deep and Dangerous Study Guide PDF
YES! in the sea of life enisl’d,
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 hollows 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 —
Oh! 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 —
Oh 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 severance rul’d!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb’d, salt, estranging sea.
Matthew Arnold (18221888)
Matthew Arnold
GLOSSARY
Enisl’d;
to make into an island
Enclasping:
to clasp or hold in an embrace
Balms:
a substance which soothes
Marges:
edges, margins
Severance:
breaking apart
Bade:
ordered
Betwixt:
between
Unplumb’d:
a depth which cannot be measured
Estranging:
pushing apart
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE POEM?
In the first stanza of the poem, the poet compares humans to islands. This suggests how
distant we are from one another. He paints an image of a vast sea between the islands
(people), and emphasises their separation through the line "We mortal millions live alone."
The final word of the line is put into italics to emphasise it and the line stops at that point. It
conveys the sadness of feeling alone in society.
In the second stanza these islands are drawn to one another, through the lovely sounds of
birds singing, sounds which drift between the islands. The poet expresses his desire for
human connection, which modern society lacks. Each island can hear the nightingales sing
from other islands, a beautiful sound that is nevertheless too distant to reach. We know that
there is joy in connection, but cannot achieve that.
He suggests that we must have once been together all the "islands" must have once been one
"continent." In prehistoric times Britain was joined to Europe as a land mass. He desperately
wishes that the water between the islands would recede so that the landforms might meet
again. He longs for a sense of togetherness between people.
In the final stanza, he asks what power could possibly keep lovers apart like this, and "render
vain their deep desire." The answer, he states, is God — the God of the modern world does
not provide the same hope and connection that He once did, since much of faith is tainted by
science.
The final line with the metaphor of the sea as ‘unplumbed, salt, estranging’ is very
pessimistic as he is saying that God’s will has determined that man shall be separated by a
sea which cannot be known, is painful and drives people apart.
The undercurrent of the poem is a scepticism in scientific discovery and an implication that
there is more faith in science than God now. For the poet, this makes us spiritually distant
from one another.
The poem’s title is ‘To Marguerite’ may refer to an unfulfilled love relationship.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN THEMES AND IDEAS?
Man lives alone, like an island separated from others.
Faith loss of faith and love
WHAT ARE THE MAIN ASPECTS OF STYLE WHICH ARE EFFECTIVE?
● The main metaphor compares people to islands. Britain is an island separated from the
continent by an ‘echoing strait’, the English Channel.
● The rhyme scheme is ababcc and the final rhyming couplet of each stanza gives a
sense of control.