gleams and is gone

Sophocles, greek writer of tragic plays

land = continuity

So various, so beautiful, so new

like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd

"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."

The Sea of Faith

". . . neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain . . ."

Loss of faith

Expresses a crisis of faith, with the speaker acknowledging the diminished standing of Christianity.

tonight, tide

full, fair

coast, cliff

". . . the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams . . ."

Man, the natural world, uncertainity