Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

"Dover Beach" is a short lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1 !" in the collection #ew $oems% but surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1 &'. (he most li)ely date is 1 *1. (he title% locale and sub+ect of the poem,s descriptive opening lines is the shore of the English ferry port of Dover% -ent% facing .alais% /rance% at the 0trait of Dover% the narrowest part 121 miles3 of the English .hannel% where Arnold honeymooned in 1 *1. In 0tefan .ollini,s opinion% "Dover Beach" is a difficult poem to analyse% and some of its passages and metaphors have become so well )nown that they are hard to see with "fresh eyes". Arnold begins with a naturalistic and detailed nightscape of the beach at Dover in which auditory imagery plays a significant role 1"4isten5 you hear the grating roar"3.(he beach% however% is bare% with only a hint of humanity in a light that "gleams and is gone".6eflecting the traditional notion that the poem was written during Arnold,s honeymoon 1see composition section3% one critic notes that "the spea)er might be tal)ing to his bride". Arnold loo)s at two aspects of this scene% its soundscape 1in the first and second stan7as3 and the retreating action of the tide 1in the third stan7a3. 8e hears the sound of the sea as "the eternal note of sadness". 0ophocles% a *th9century B. :ree) playwright who wrote tragedies on fate and the will of the gods% also heard this sound as he stood upon the shore of the Aegean 0ea..ritics differ widely on how to interpret this image of the :ree) classical age. ;ne sees a difference between 0ophocles interpreting the "note of sadness" humanistically% while Arnold in the industrial nineteenth century hears in this sound the retreat of religion and faith.A more recent critic connects the two as artists% 0ophocles the tragedian% Arnold the lyric poet% each attempting to transform this note of sadness into "a higher order of e<perience". 8aving e<amined the soundscape% Arnold turns to the action of the tide itself and sees in its retreat a metaphor for the loss of faith in the modern age%once again e<pressed in an auditory image 1"But now I only hear = Its melancholy% long% withdrawing roar"3. (his third stan7a begins with an image not of sadness% but of "+oyous fulness" similar in beauty to the image with which the poem opens. (he final stan7a begins with an appeal to love% then moves on to the famous ending metaphor. .ritics have varied in their interpretation of the first two lines> one calls them a "perfunctory gesture ... swallowed up by the poem,s powerfully dar) picture"% while another sees in them "a stand against a world of bro)en faith".Midway between these is one of Arnold,s biographers% who describes being "true = (o one another" as "a precarious notion" in a world that has become "a ma7e of confusion". (he metaphor with which the poem ends is most li)ely an allusion to a passage in (hucydides,s account of the $eloponnesian ?ar. 8e describes an ancient battle that occurred on a similar beach during the Athenian invasion of 0icily. (he battle too) place at night> the attac)ing army became disoriented while fighting in the dar)ness and many of their soldiers inadvertently )illed each other.(his final image has also been variously interpreted by the critics. .uller calls the "dar)ling plain" Arnold,s "central statement" of

the human condition.$ratt sees the final line as "only metaphor" and thus susceptible to the "uncertainty" of poetic language.