Mr. Arnold uses the first stanza of the poem to create visual, auditory, and olfactory images that will allow the reader to picture the sea of which the speaker is viewing. The poet begins immediately with visual and auditory imagery when describing the sea as “calm”(1). In more detail the speaker describes the “tide [as] full”(2) in the “moon”(2) light(4). This image suggests that there is life out there, but that it is smothered by the darkness. The “cliffs of England”(4) are “glimmering and vast, o

In the third stanza, the poet uses a large combination of poetic devices to reveal the speaker’s thoughts about faith. The speaker begins by saying “the Sea of Faith/was once …full“(21-22). The poet uses a metaphor when he calls the faith of all people a “Sea of Faith”(21). The speaker believes that the world used to be full of faith like a sea is “full…round [like the] earth’s shore”(22). In line twenty-five the poet uses auditory imagery when he describes the sound of the waves as “melancholy, long, [and with a] withdrawing roar”(25). At this point the speaker no longer believes that the world is full of faith, and when he hears the waves he only feels sorrow. With the sea now retreating his “breath/of the night-wind”(25-26) makes him feel “naked”(27) and bare. We not only feel the wind because the poet uses tactile imagery, but we can picture the deserted beach with his visual imagery as well. With the use of the words “melancholy…withdrawing/retreating…naked”(25,26,28) the poet is exposing his despair.

ut in the tranquil bay”(5). The poet uses visual imagery to describe in detail the cliffs sparkling in the moonlight. At this point he has someone to “come to the window”(6) and enjoy the “sweet�

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