Theme of Loss

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross once said, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.” Truly, Matthew Arnold, author of“Dover Beach”, and Dylan Thomas, author of “Fern Hill” are beautiful and insightful people regardless of the sad theme of loss in both their poems.

In“Dover Beach,” Arnold discusses the loss of faith he has endured in his life. Arnold said, “The sea of faith was once, too, at full and round Earth’s shore. Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear a melancholy roar…” (Arnold, 21-25). Arnold compares the ocean to faith, and like the ocean, his faith is no longer at high tide and it is evident that he struggles with the loss. The only thing he sees and hears is his faith pulling away and due to his desolate diction, we can tell he is totally miserable. Arnold ends his poem by stating that the things in life that should be beautiful, “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (Arnold, 33-34). Even with the spiritual loss Arnold faced he still created a poem so dramatic and visually beautiful to read.

Another writer who used his sense of loss to create beauty is Dylan Thomas, author of “Fern Hill.” Thomas addresses the feeling of youth slipping away when he says, “And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land. Oh, as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means. Time held me green and dying” (Thomas, 51-53). After establishing such a peaceful scene Thomas has a mood shift and the peace sorrowfully disappears. He shares a pessimistic view on life, and explains that from the moment of birth, one is just on their long journey to death. Based on his gloomy view on life one can assume that Thomas has faced a dramatic feeling of loss. Thomas expresses the feeling of loss of youth through insightful and vivid imagery. He describes a beautiful ‘green’ image to the audience (Thomas, 19-27), just to diminish the exquisite scenery in the next few stanzas. The beautiful youth filled farm was now “childless” and “dying” (Thomas, 5153). “Fern Hill” is truly a beautiful piece of literature created by a man who is no stranger to sorrow.

For both Matthew Arnold and Dylan Thomas, writing poems, filled with beautiful imagery and devices, was a way to cope with their losses and a way to escape out of their gloomy depths.