Comment on the use of metaphor in ‘To Marguerite: Continued’. / Attempt a critical appreciation of Arnold’s To Marguerite: Continued.

Comment on the use of metaphor in ‘To Marguerite: Continued’. / Attempt a critical appreciation of Arnold’s To Marguerite: Continued.

The poem To Marguerite: Continued was perhaps Arnold's response to the famous line from John Donne's Devotions opon Emergent Occasions published in 1624. The line read, "No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine." (Translated to contemporary parlance, the most famous part of the line is "No man is an island.") Donne wished us to believe that none of us are entirely alone - instead, we are all interdependent, reliant on one another. Every piece of land survives and thrives as part of a greater community, or "continent."

More than 200 years later, Arnold pessimistically argues that the opposite is true. The poem suggests that every man is an island, separated by water from those around him, even though they may seemingly be close. The real tragedy, however, is our awareness of others. 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.

The undercurrent of the poem is a skepticism in scientific discovery. The basic premise - that the continent has broken apart and drifted into separate islands - is based on a rational theory that reflects Enlightenment thought. This rational, scientific reading might have a basis in fact, but it for Arnold makes us spiritually distant from one another. We have traded faith - in the great community engendered by shared religious faith - for separation...........................................................

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Milan Tomic

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