Dover Beach, Half Remembered

Dover Beach, Half Remembered

What is that line from ‘Dover Beach’?
The world seems ‘beautiful and new’
but really has ‘no love nor light’
and we are on ‘a darkling plain’
where ‘stupid armies’ are fighting
and all we need is ‘love and truth’?

Well, that poem’s a total peach
and strikes me as profoundly true.
I’m not sure I’ve remembered right
but, even mangled by my brain,
it remains a piece of writing
I’ve been in love with since my youth.

Anyway, not to over-reach,
it somehow makes me think of you.
The poem’s saying ‘let’s not fight’,
that love can somehow help with pain.
That’s simple but worth highlighting
though Arnold offers little proof.

Perhaps I’m ludicrous and vain
but don’t you find this exciting?
Ah, fuck, perhaps I’m too uncouth.