A Poem

I've been trying to revise a poem I wrote last year as a response poem/allusion poem to Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach". I became mildly obsessed with "Dover Beach" during my Victorian literature class last spring because his imagery is so beautiful and his poem captured a feeling of both beauty and hopelessness that I found intriguing and haunting. I also really enjoy the response poem titled "The Dover Bitch" by Anthony Hecht, which is less haunting and more hilarious, but evocative all the same.

Here's my poem; all constructive criticism is welcome!

Ineffable Waltz

So here we dance upon your darkling plain,

Although I know the steps but dim

I follow yours into an endless round

Of one and two and three and one.

Your hand has seized on mine;

However far I try to spin away

I hear the crashing roar of Dover’s wave;

It beats the time as of a pounding heart,

Those ineluctable waves, those awful, beautiful

Swells that rush upon us as we grasp each other;

We become you and I, like we always knew we were.

And yes, I realize it is a little melodramatic.