Dover Beach

Dover Beach In his poem, “Dover Beach”, Matthew Arnold describes the seaside view of the English Channel at night through his window. He uses the waves on the pebbled beach as a metaphor for the sadness and uncertainty that he feels when he realizes that the world is moving away from religion. The image of the ocean becomes the central metaphor that ties the entire poem, full of allusions and emotional distress, together. The beginning of the poem sets a scene of peace and melancholy. Arnold describes a “Sea of Faith,” which once covered the Earth, but is now receding away from the shores of human life. In referencing a plain, it seems, at first, like Arnold is breaking away from the ocean metaphor. However, his plain could be the dried seabed that is left behind when the ocean recedes. The dried remains of the sea floor can seem like a desolate, bleak place, as Arnold describes the world in the last stanza, but he also leaves room for hope. The final stanza is drawn between the false potential of the world as seen by mainstream Victorian society, the true absence as seen by Arnold, and the flutter of hope for the world’s rebirth that Arnold finds in human love. He combines his sorrow and confusion with the inherent peace and tranquility of the scene in a way that keeps the poem from being too distressing for the reader. “Dover Beach” adopts the tone of sweet melancholy which serves to both ground the reader in a specific place and open up the poem to a feeling of timelessness.