"God has become a Deus absconditus, hidden who knows where, behind the silence of infinite spaces, and our literary symbols can only make the most distant allusions to him, or to the natural world that it was his abode and his home." (Miller, 68) This quote from J. Hillis Miller's article "The Theme of the Disappearance of God in Victorian Poetry" is reflected in Matthew Arnold's poem, "To Marguerite - Continued." This poem is not only a commentary on love and human isolation, but on religious doubt, a central issue in the Victorian era. In developing the theme of religious doubt and setting the tone for this poem, Arnold also employs a number of poetic techniques and literary devices. It is important to note that questions about God and religion are inevitably raised in response to a particular social situation. environment. Religious doubt is not a homogeneous concept, and appreciating the particular nature of Arnold's doubt requires some contextual understanding. The Victorian era took place in an increasingly industrialized scientific context: trade, manufacturing capacity and the individualisation of society produced a thriving middle class in England. “Progress” manifested itself in the creations of man and the machine age. Men and women were no longer required to seek truth or comfort in religious teaching; Indeed, God's rejection is in a sense a reflection of humanity's faith in its own ability to obtain the truth. The first verse of "To Marguerite" constitutes a metaphor for Arnold's particular sense of religious disconnection. Humanity is depicted as a series of islands, surrounded by "life" (the water flowing between). Beginning in the first person, the first stanza conveys the message almost immediately… to the center of the card… regardless of the man's position, in stark contrast to the fractured and distinctly human environment of 19th century England. As Miller states, "The history of modern literature is in part the history of the splitting of this communion which was matched by a similar dispersion of the cultural unity of man. God, nature and language." Arnold's doubt is not that of the man who does not believe - the doubt that religion, gods, or God exist or have existed - but that of the man who suffers from a more longing emotion, a desperation that arises from the knowledge that a God who should exist and has existed is now absent. Works Cited Miller, J. Hillis. The theme of the disappearance of God in Victorian poetry. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1963. Print.Ricks, Christopher. The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. p 303. Print.