Essay on Dover Beach: An Analysis

Matthew Arnold’s poem, “Dover Beach” does a great job at portraying what love is talked up to be. He starts the poem by saying, “The sea is calm tonight / The tide is full the moon lies fair / the cliffs of England stand / Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.” (1-2, 4-5.) giving off a peaceful and tranquil tone and adding on to that in the following lines of the stanza. Th importance of the setting of the poem is that it paints a beautiful landscape which gives breath to the idea

Many other authors, like Matthew Arnold, began writing their personal accounts of what they experienced or saw others experiencing, giving the feeling of melancholy. The reason why Dover Beach represents the Victorian period is because in the way Arnold wrote it, he didn’t ground himself or stick to one specific subject. He creates a mood by using a variety of images, metaphors, similes, and adjectives. The narrator seems lonely, not mentioning any other person around him. One of the other major problems being experienced during this time are also represented in this poem. That problem is the loss of faith. Because of the new developments,

Matthew Arnold is one of the many famous and prolific writers from the nineteenth century. Two of his best known works are entitled Dover Beach and The Buried Life. Although the exact date of composition is unknown, clearly they were both written in the early 1850s. The two poems have in common various characteristics, such as the theme and style. The feelings of the speakers of the poem also resemble each other significantly. The poems are concerned with the thoughts and feelings of humans living in an uncertain world. Even though Arnold wrote Dover Beach and The Buried Life around the same time, the

“Meandering watery worlds, like you and the black umbrella, the one you will lose on purpose at day’s end so you can go the way you came into the world, wet looking.” Initially this stanza shows longing in a way

The “turbid ebb and flow” are two adjectives that show us that the tide is moving all the murky, unclear water around and this is referring to the sea. Matthew Arnold then goes on to compare us to Sophocles as this phrase of the poem shows “we find also” which directly links back to the extended metaphor located in this stanza. This is a direct allusion between these two eras of Sophocles and Arnold. In the final stanza the poet pleads with us to see that there is “nor love, nor light, nor help, nor peace” as “ignorant armies clash by night”. This effect of listing shows human impurities such as greed for power and wealth. Arnold desperately wants the world to unite under religion and create a better community. This is genuinely showing the theme of change.

Listen closely, to the gentle crashing of the waves, the occasional seagulls squawking…to the chatter of playing, eating, and joking people. Listen again to the concerned parents, to the shrill voiced children (climbing on rocks and poking dead jellyfish), or the loudly oblivious teens; and that one guy with THAT sense of humor who can’t stop laughing about the “stone fleet”. This is just the tip of the iceberg of experiences available at Cape May’s Beach.

Arnold uses the statement “The sea is calm tonight” to implant a vivid image into the reader’s head, it could be suggested this first line sets up a happy tone which is then

Arnold brilliantly uses the poem's structure and form to mirror faith and its loosening grasp on the world. Considering the fact that it is a free verse, the structure of the poem starts out relatively strict, and it is almost reminiscent of a sonnet. The first stanza consists of fourteen lines

Remember that the tone of how a poem is read by is important in feeling the emotion that comes with the poem. It isn't until the final stanza where the reader can fly put all the pieces together to come to the conclusion of what Arnold was wanting the theme to be all about. In lines 29-30 he says “Ah, love, let us be true/ To one another!” Just those two lines alone makes the connection of life that much greater. Arnold states that the only true and real thing that could ever possibly be true is love. The feeling of love, the act of love, the love for one another and the love for ourselves is the only thing a human can one hundred percent rely on for being true. Even when all of the worldly come and go and bring only temporary happiness love is constant. Patrick Creevy is a critic that truly understands the theme that Arnold is trying to convey to the audience. Creevy

The author uses syntax to create a uniform rhyming scheme. There are eight feet in each line of the poem that are consistent until the end of the poem. Words such as “flow’d” and “scream’d” are used in order to keep balance in the beats; therefore, creating rhythm. The poem is organized into stanzas, each stanza having the first line rhyme with the second and the third line rhyme with the fourth. For example, the first stanza reads: “No stir in the air, no stir in the sea; the ship was still as she could be; her sails from heaven received no motion; her keel was steady in the ocean.” (Lines 1-4) The syntax used by the author helps in the meaning of the poem by setting the tone. By setting the tone of the story, one is able to see the meaning behind

I walked along the beach. As I was walking I could feel the fresh smell of the beach like it was an air freshener but it also smelled that gave me a tingle in my nose. As I kept walking along the beach I could feel the light breeze coming against me. This fresh air felt warm as I felt like I was sleeping in a comfortable bed. I kept walking in the beach, as I did it felt like an escape to all my problems and also my stress. Beach felt like a solution to all my problems and could be open with anything.

Arnold’s “Dover Beach” opens with a tranquil scene. A place where waves crash on the shoreline of the English Channel, and a couple gazes out a window at the moonlit water. The speaker uses the imagery and sound of pebbles in the surf to create a metaphor for the story of souls and the persistent, incremental decline of faith that his culture has suffered. The poem ends with the suggestion of promulgating love in a world of violence and fear and pain. This is actually a metaphor, for God is love. When the speaker promotes love between couples, this love is what will help prove their faith, not denounce it.

Stanza 3 of Dover Beach shows the ushering in of new thoughts and ideas, and the removal of the hold that religion has on society in the Victorian Era. “The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore” and “But now I only hear/ Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar/ Retreating, to the breath/ Of the night-wind, down the vast edges of drear (Arnold)” reflects this introduction of new thought into society. In Parking Lot, lines 9-12 shows how the narrator

Arnold was deeply depressed, but soon “began to develop and articulate many of his ideas, feelings, and values relating to poetry and modern life”.(McGill 1) Arnold also criticizes Clough’s poetry as mainstream, but he found a connection with himself. The death of his closest friends and his father lead Arnold to his career as a critic.

Freezing cold rain poured down from the dark, cloudy sky as we were running like our lives depended on it. My dad was carrying my six year old sister and my mom was carrying me, and I was four years old. We could hear the cruise ship’s horn blaring in the distance, but other than that and the seagulls’ barking, we were surrounded by complete silence. Now, you’re probably wondering where I am talking about and what is going on, but no need to worry, because I will tell you.