Poem

            Matthew Arnold and Ernest Dowson write emotional, mood-altering poems about the monastic order called the Carthusian regimen. Though each wrote about the historic landmark at different times, similarities co-exist between the two writings. Differences also come about in the mood and subject of each poem as written. The similarities of the somewhat depressing matter of monastery life and faith are evident in both while the difference of the mood in each is also present.
             Both poems talk of the solemn and dark manner of life lived in solitude. Such words as "death-, "white- and "austere- come up in both writings that provoke the sense of solitude, bleakness and a dry, severe atmosphere. The word "austere-, not usually a common word spoken, was used in both Arnold's and Dowson's poetry. This word, meaning "dry, harsh or having a severe or stern look- encompasses on the whole the overall sense they each collected from the Carthusian monastery. The talk of the monks being austere foreshadowed the further description of the feeling around this place. In Dowson's poem, this word comes up in the second of nine stanzas in the poem and reads (1896.5-6):.
             Within their austere walls no voices penetrate.
             A sacred silence only, as of death, obtains;.
             As in Arnold's poem, this stanza contains the word "death-. Death is a word that is used to describe the lack of progress and movement in the monastery to both authors. Arnold's poem even goes as far as describing the Guiers Mort River that intersects the "sister streams of life and death-. To both Arnold and Dowson this building is a place where those who live there seem to have died to the world and all around them. This intersection of life and death in the physical atmosphere around the monastery is an essential element to Arnold's poem emphasizing the dark nature around it. In line (1494.45-47) Arnold says:.
             Upon the wall "the knee-work floor ".