DOVER!!

DOVER BEACH

By Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm tonight,

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits;

on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night air!

Only, from the long line of spray


Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,


Listen! you hear the grating roar


Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, 


At their return, up the high strand, 


Begin, and cease, and then again begin,


With tremulous cadence slow, and bring 


The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago 
Heard it on the Agean, and it brought


Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow 


Of human misery; we


Find also in the sound a thought, 


Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith 


Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore


Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. 


But now I only hear


Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 


Retreating, to the breath 


Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear


And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true 


To one another! for the world, which seems 


To lie before us like a land of dreams, 


So various, so beautiful, so new, 


Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, 


Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; 


And we are here as on a darkling plain 


Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 


Where ignorant armies clash by night.

1867

Our trip to Dover was pretty memorable, I had such an awesome time! In the bus on the way there Dr. Paxman taught as a little bit about castles, all stuff that I probably should have already known but I must have forgotten. Anyway it was all super interesting and I was excited to apply my new found knowledge to Dover Castle!

Here are a few things I learned:

1. Castles served 3 different purposes, defense against foreign attack, defense against domestic attack (for when the townspeople hate the King), and as a status symbol for the King to show off how much power and wealth he has, as well as how much control he has over his people since they are the ones who help pay for it and build it.

2. Nobody can really say when a castle was built because the initial design was always built upon for 100s of years after, depending on what renovations or additions were necessary. Because of it’s placement on the coast and it’s close proximity to the coast of France (26 miles away), Dover Castle was under continuos military construction. It was even used during WWII as a headquarters communication point. It was during that time that they added a hospital and dug secret military tunnels all around it.

3. Castles are typically built concentrically with 2 outer walls so that attackers have a harder time breaking through and getting in to the “keep” which is the main, residential area of the castle. The 2 outer walls have angled holes in them (skinny little arrow holes that you can shoot out of but that are nearly impossible for someone to shoot through from the other side), murder holes to drop stones and hot tar through onto the people below, battlements, flanking towers, matriculations...the list goes on.

4. William the Conqueror introduced a period of great castle building in which 500 castles were built in one generation. Keep in mind, however, that a lot of those castles were built only for defense and it wasn’t until later that they were built up and refined into private residences.