Dover Beach 'And Say Not The Struggle Nagle Neth'

Both “Dover Beach” and Clough’s poem “Say not the struggle naught availeth” present powerful imagery of the ocean in order to convey their meaning. More specifically, both poems make reference to the ocean’s waves crashing against the shore. Clough’s poem personifies the waves as “tired”. In the third stanza, he comments on the fact that though they move endlessly, they never seem to actually make any progress. In the first stanza, “Dover Beach” describes the sound of waves as a “grating roar” and details their movements in the line “Begin, and cease, and then again begin”. Both poems are commenting on the same qualities of the sea. They both reference its timeless, steady motions. The poems also seem to recognize an almost melancholy aspect