The poem, "When Icicles Hang by the Wall " is taken from Shakespeare's play "Love's Labour Lost". It is a song to criticize the winter season but poem doesn't present the direct and strong criticism. Poet is able to manage modest criticism to select the objective words. In the poem, the poet very cleverly to shows his dislikeness towards winter season.
According to the poem, when winter comes it brings several influences, the walls are covered with ice, everything including human's life get influenced by the cold and due to extreme cold, each phenomena come to freeze. To prevent excessive cold, Dick blows his nail and Tom Carries fire logs into the house. Milk freezes as soon as it is poured into the pail. The blood of living creatures comes to freeze. The snow has covered the way and made it muddy. The staring owl sings at night while Joan is keeling kitchen pots. Priests is unable to deliver his preaching due to his old age and coldness. Birds sit for brooding into their nests to skip away from the cold and due to heavy cold Marian's nose becomes red and raw. These all are the symptoms of winter season mentioned in the poem that shows the arrival of winter season. All people used to sit around the fire-place and the sounds of the roasted crabs could be heard. They ate and drank to prevent the coldness of winter season. Through all these images, we can notice winter is not pleasant in England.
"Dover Beach" is one of the representative poem of Arnold. He tries to show the lack of faith and certitude in a world which is materially expanding wide. It begins with an objective description of the ebb and flow of the wave in the sea. He recalls Sophocles who used to hear same kind of song tuned into human misery. He comes to the present and says that human misery due to lack of faith has not decreased but increased many-fold.
In the past, the sea of faith had encircled the earth and there was no melancholy, no sadness and no misery. But there is no more sea of faith now. Therefore, the world has become more like dream world and their is neither love nor joy, nor light, nor certitude etc. Everywhere there is confusion, struggles and fights among each other. Man is like a soldier fighting with an unknown enemy in the darkness, without any purpose of fighting. The only compensation in such a situation is "love". So he request his lover to be true to one another.
The poem can be divided into two parts. On the first part he talks of the resounding of waves on the pebbled beach. It is just the background which later leads to real consequence. In the later part he expresses his deep feeling about the real situation in the world that is changing rapidly with the growth of science and technology. The world has changed to be strangely unreal. It has many varieties in it, it has become more beautiful and fresher but it lacks all positive virtues like love, faith, peace, certitude etc.
"Lady Clare" is a narrative poem that deals with the theme of love. It embodies a dramatic way of precaution where action unfolds through dialogue and characters are recognized through what they say. The dramatic presentation is concerned with the theme of pure and unselfish love. It shows how lovers can rise above social and economic status and are able to remain faithful and honest to each other.
Lord Ronald love Lady Clare and she also love him equally. They were about to get married. She believed that he loved her true worth rather than her birth or land. In the mean time she was informed by an old nurse named Alice that she was not Lady Clare but her own daughter. After the death of the daughter of an old Earl, she placed her daughter in her place. Lady Clare was now sure that Lord Ronald would not marry her. In spite of nurse's advice, she went to Ronald in a dress of typical village girl and told her everything about her origin that she knew from Alice. After Ronald came to know the reality about his beloved, he declared that he would marry her even if she was not his cousin and she was poor.
This poem thus presents face of real love irrespective of social and economic status. Love is something different which has nothing to do with the birth or origin and social status of either partner. It is holy thing that binds two souls in such a way that it is impossible to unbind them.
It is a ballad written in simple language. the dramatic structure of the poem is appropriate to unfold the truth mostly through the dialogue of the characters and their action.
"She was a Phantom of Delight" is a portrait of William Wordsworth's wife, Mary Hutchinson. He shows how the perception goes on changing from first sight to marriage. It presents a very clear picture of changing perception in different situation and different times. In the first sight he finds her exceptionally beautiful just sent from heaven to delight him. Her presence is monetary but remains in his mind in such a way that he can not help remembering her. In her absence also he is haunted, startled and waylaid by her angelic and delightful image.
The relationship grows stronger and they become nearer to each other and he studies her household motions and every step in family life. She is a perfect woman in family life with the countenance full of sweet promises. She is a moderate woman for the transient sorrows, love, kisses and tears. She is neither too good nor too bad, rather she is practical woman, pleasant companion and a perfect housewife.
Finally she is very intellectual and moral being who is capable of guiding him. She is very conscious in every step of life with the firm reason, temperate will, endurance, foresight. strength and skill. Her quality is like that of the angel of god, all virtuous, to direct and guide him to move forward.
Thus, beginning with a distant view that offers an illusion, he closes up to a more realistic and spiritual view of life. The linear movement from the first sight to her encouraging and inspiring quality shows that he is a perfect woman created by the creator with grand design.
