Read our detailed notes on the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Our notes cover Dover Beach summary, themes, and literary analysis.
Introduction
Background
Mathew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” was published in 1867. In “Dover Beach,” Arnold describes the effects that science has had on the religion. Being written in the Victorian era, this poem is representative of many of the era’s major concerns, conflicts, and controversies. During that time, advancements in science and industry were changing the way people thought about the world and the place of human beings in it. Moreover, some of the established religious doctrines were being questioned and challenged. “Dover Beach” is a mirror to these social changes and the stress they inescapably ignited.
Dover Beach and Arnold’s Honeymoon
There is some evidence that the entire poem or some of it was written at the time Arnold married Frances Lucy Wightman on June 10, 1851. As a honeymoon, the two of them stayed for a night at Dover Beach. The scene at the opening of the poem reflects his real honeymoon experience when the speaker looks out at the beach and calls his love to look at the same scene. Looking from this perspective, the poem starts and ends with the speaker calling his new wife.
Historical Context
The mid-nineteenth century was the time of confusion and spiritual chaos. To those living in England at that time, the religious skepticism was more than a personal matter and a philosophical controversy between believers and non-believers. In the Victorian era, a person defined his identity according to certain standards. For example, his place in the universe, his moral and ethical rules, and those principles that claimed to run the society.
For an average Victorian in 1850, Christianity provided a whole worldview. When new alternatives came to replace the Christian doctrine, people started questioning their earlier beliefs. In this situation, a large number of Christians remained firm throughout the challenges by scientists, Biblical scholars, and social theorists. However, it left many Christians confused.
Another threat to society was the growing acceptance of a materialistic school of thought, known as Utilitarianism. It said that all realities are based on people’s self-interest. It stated that a person does not choose an action because of its moral and ethical outcome. It claimed that actions are chosen because of their likelihood of bringing pleasure instead of pain. It means that society acts according to the collective self-interest.
The motto of Utilitarianism was “the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people.” It stood in contrast to the religious principles which said that virtue is the motivating push behind human conduct.
Another threat to the church doctrine and society was the teachings of Thomas Malthus, a cleric, and economic theorist. He hypothesized that a shortage of resources along with the overpopulation of poorer class would end up in mass poverty. In the mid-nineteenth century, his prophecy was coming true. With the industrialization, factories were built across Northern England. Despite the growing economy, the living conditions of workers seemed to have worsened.
Malthusians said that the workers’ poverty is the consequence of their tendency to have many children. Furthermore, they believed that social reforms and welfare will encourage the production of more offspring, and will decrease the mortality rate among the poor. This notion also went against the church dogma which taught charity towards the poor and that all people are equal in the eyes of God.
The scientific outlook of Victorians increased more when more genealogical discoveries were made. In 1856, archaeologists discovered the remains of Neanderthal Man. Scientists discovered history many times older than the creation of the Bible. All this set stage for Charles Darwin who wrote about evolution rather than creation. He came up with his idea of the natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Not a long time before “Dover Beach” was published; Charles Darwin published his studies on evolution in On the Origin of Species. “Dover Beach” is considered a witness to the clash between science and religion.
Dover Beach Summary
The poem starts in a conventional naturalistic atmosphere. The speaker describes seashore in the moonlight. The speaker stands on the cliffs of Dover Beach. He observes nature. He looks out upon a calm sea and examines the fullness and highness of the tide. He also observes that the moonlight reflects on the water. The speaker then looks across the English Channel to the French coast that is only twenty miles away. There, the speaker sees that the lights of the French coast have faded away. However, the cliffs of the English coast stand bright and tall. At this moment, the bay also seems calm.
Suddenly, the speaker calls someone else. He describes the scene to someone else and wants this person to come and be the speaker’s companion. He beseeches this person to join him at the window to look at what the speaker is looking at and to enjoy the pleasant air of the night.
After this, the speaker’s mood suddenly changes. The speaker senses something is not quite right. He describes the result when the water meets the moonlit land.
The speaker instructs the other person to listen to the sound of the pebbles. The pebbles make a displeasing sound when the waves pick them up as they move across the shoreline and deposit them as the waves go back. The speaker notes this repeatedly slow motion of the waves, and it evokes eternal sadness in him. This eternal sadness reflects the misery of humans throughout history rather than the personal problems of the speaker.
Immediately, the speaker considers the ancient Greek tragedy writer, Sophocles. He wonders if Sophocles may have heard the same sadness in the Aegean Sea which the speaker hears now on the English coast. In the mind of the speaker, Sophocles compares the sad sound of the sea waves with the general endless suffering of humanity, which moves like the waves.
The speaker then observes another mental image that comes because of the sound of the sea. Describing this next thought, the speaker likens religious faith to a sea and calls it “The Sea of faith” that was once filled with the tides. At that time, it surrounded the earth like a belt. At the present moment, the speaker only hears that the sea draws back melancholy. The Sea of Faith becomes smaller and it disappears into the atmosphere. In this way, it leaves the boundaries of the world uncovered.
The speaker then addresses the companion as “love.” He suggests desperately that the two of them need to deal with each other with honesty and originality. The speaker states that the world before them seems like a beautiful and a new dream which is full of joy.
However, this is not the truth. The world does not offer any happiness, love, and clarity. Also, this world does not provide any assurance, calmness, and consolation for pain. The speaker then compares the present situation of humanity with a standing position of a person on a flat and dark piece of land that is trapped in the chaos of a battle. Here, the fight between the unknowing groups continues in the darkness of the night.
Themes in Dover Beach
Nature and its Meaning
To the poets of the Victorian era, man’s unease and suffering was the result of his increasing tendency to ignore his attention from nature. Man alienated himself. In other words, the man turned his eyes from the very center of his own mystery and thus from the cure to his dissatisfaction. Many of the era’s intellectual advances—Evolutionary theory, sociology, archaeology, and textual criticism of the Bible were the era’s intellectual advances. They had challenged the explanations of religion regarding the origin of the world, its function and the way it would precede in future times.
Because of the incontrovertible evidence, people were slowly forced to accept that it was the science that explains and describes nature in the best possible way. Such thinking did great harm to humankind. Science provided less spiritual comfort in contrast to religion that provided contentment. People questioned their beliefs.
In the scientific view, the world was a kingdom that favored no special place for man as the religion promised. Charles Darwin said that man himself was purely the product of evolution. It started to consider man as an opportunistic and successful animal. People were forced to believe that their presence on earth was secured only because they had survived the battle for the “survival of the fittest.”
Due to the presence of such deleterious concepts, Victorian poets found the need to alter the entire meaning of nature in poetry. In some ways, the natural world remained unchanged. Science yet changed man’s perception of nature and his place in it. It also changed man’s conception of soul and eternal life.
The mindful speaker in “Dover Beach” genuinely notes the “Glimmering and vast” cliffs and “sweet” night air. He also observes the “calm” sea with tides and moonlight reflecting on it. At the same time, the speaker acknowledges that nature’s beauty hardly hides its darkness. In the end, the speaker describes the world as a “darkling plain.” The disturbing noise on the shore reminds him of the fruitless struggles of the man against the force of decay and competition.
God and Religion
In “Dover Beach,” the sound of the sea reminds the speaker of “ebb and flow of human misery.” The speaker draws a metaphorical contrast between the days of belief of the past and the skeptical days of the present age. Earlier, the “Sea of Faith” was “calm,” “full” of the tide, and the “moon lies fair” on it. It provided hope and certainty to man. At the present time, that sea is “withdrawing” and “retreating.” Such a sea is exposing the edges of the world. It is the negative effect of the loss of faith. The boundaries of the world are now without the beautiful and bright covering that the sea provided once. The world is no longer enveloped in beauty. It is no longer protected.
In such a world, all the hopes and dreams of man have died. In today’s world, no pleasant hopes of the peaceful past can survive. The world still shows glimpses of its beauty in brief moments and “lie before us like a land of dreams, / So various, so beautiful, so new.” Such a view requires the type of belief that is no longer present because of the greater doubt at hand. Faith in God and religion is gone and it has taken away with itself all the joy, love, light, certitude, and peace which live in faithful hearts. Instead of peace and comfort, the world is facing struggles, confusion, and the battles of armies in the dark.
Human Suffering
Despite its appealing and dignified opening, there occurs a quick transition in the tone of the speaker. The speaker turns his thoughts to violence and misery when he hears the sound of the waves of the seashore. By the end of the poem, readers are presented with a picture of total anguish. Connections between the stanzas provide a road map of the speaker’s process of thought, throwing light on this progression. The common theme throughout the poem is human suffering.
According to the speaker, the slow and rhythmic sound of the waves, going back and forth on the shore, produces the “eternal note of sadness.” This “eternal note of sadness,” introduced in Stanza one, is explained by the speaker in the stanza two that what this sadness is. This sound of the waves reminds him of Sophocles. Sophocles also compared the sound of waves with the human miseries that come and go in a never-ending cycle.
At the end of Stanza 2, the speaker decides to find a thought in the sound the way Sophocles did. Stanza 3 gives understanding- of the thought. He compares the sea and its retreating waves with the religious faith of humanity because its withdrawal also leaves the world less beautiful and harsher. Stanza 4 presents an image of the world that how it looks like when the faith is lost. The world with no faith is a place with no love, joy, hope, certainty, and peace. A faithless world is a place of cruelty, violence, suffering, and war.
Love
The word “love” does not appear in the poem until the final stanza when the speaker says, “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!” it reveals that it is the speaker’s love whom he calls to the window to look at what he is looking at. He also addresses the person in the first stanza of the poem to see the tides crash upon the shore. It is the commitment and faithfulness between the two lovers that provide the only possible break from the havoc and torture of the world. The final image of two people standing together on a “darkling plain” in a confused state of “struggle and flight” shows the perseverance of love despite the warlike state of the world.
The final image of the two lovers in the last stanza shows that the two lovers are united by their bond and standing against the distress of the world. It also states that the world “hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light.” This statement suggests the world may appear beautiful and full of love and happiness, but its beauty is a mere fantasy. The world only “seems” to be a “land of dreams.”
Anti-Modernization
In “Dover Beach,” Arnold expresses his strong feelings against the rapid modernization during the Victorian period. The speed at which everything moves and the intensity, with which people are expected to work, is ruinous to society as a whole. It leads people away from what was once important to them. This poem studies modernization against faith. Faith is less a specific religious sentiment and more a focus on the power of humans to find their true selves through nature.
Dover Beach Literary Analysis
“Dover Beach” is one of Arnold’s representative poems. It is a dramatic monologue. It indicates frequently the lack of faith and certainty which were the leading disease of the Victorian age. The first stanza starts with a calm and moonlit sea which expresses the serene and peaceful mood of the speaker. He calls upon his companion to look at the sweetness and quietness of the night. He is still conscious of the harsh sound of the pebbles and waves which disturbs the peace of the sea and night. The first stanza ends on a “note of eternal sadness.” The disturbing sound reminds the speaker of the ancient times of Sophocles who were also disturbed by such noise which reflects human suffering.
The poem explains the slow loss of man’s faith in a highly suggestive simile. He compares people’s faith in religion to a sea that is all around the world. The poet reminds the world in the past which was full of faith when men believed in religion. In the present time, faith is gradually passing away and people’s minds are like pebbles on the seashore. The loss of faith causes the minds to be in a condition between belief and disbelief.
The lines from “Dover Beach” give a sharp expression of Arnold’s loss of faith and his increasing hopelessness. For Arnold, this world is strangely unreal. There is nothing real to hold tightly and be hopeful. There is no real joy, love, peace, and certitude. This world is a place full of uncertainty. The speaker of the poem compares men struggling in the world with armies fighting in the dark at night. These ignorant armies do not know what they are fighting for and why.
Stanza 1
As the poem opens, the speaker of the poem starts a dramatic monologue. He describes the serenity of the sea. The speaker stands on the coast to enjoy the calmness of the sea and moonlit night. Here, the speaker goes through the mood of sensory awareness. The quiet sea shows harmony, balance, and stability. The speaker mentions a strait which refers to the Strait of Dover between the English Channel and the North Sea. He also refers to the gleaming lights of the French coast which are gone. Metaphorically, the light that “gleams and is gone” means the oscillating faith of people in God and religion.
The initial lines of the first stanza also signify that God’s dignity cannot be destroyed by the people’s loss of faith. The speaker observes moonlight which produces a sense of desolation, meditation, and pain. The natural scene before the speaker is blended with a sense of spiritual security by words such as calm, full, fair and tranquil. The cliffs of England are composed of eroding limestone, chalk. Such composition makes it look bright and huge to the speaker. The concept of eroding further intensifies the theme of the fragile faith of human beings.
The speaker calls his companion to join him at the window and enjoy the delighted nature. It shows that the speaker seeks companionship. The speaker of the poem is concerned about the shift in human ideology from the teachings of Christianity to the impersonal world of Darwin and other scientists.
A frightening image is evoked when the terrible roar of the pebbles is caused by the ebb and flow of the sea. It creates a striking dissimilarity to the pleasant atmosphere that is described in the first few lines. It produces a depressing, tragic and stressful appeal. The continuous and endless movements of the waves bring “eternal note of sadness” in human life in general.
Stanza 2
This is an allusion to Sophocles, a famous Greek tragic poet. The gloomy and tedious sound of the waves reminds the speaker of Sophocles. Sophocles observed the misery in the life of human beings when he heard the dejected sound of the waves of the Aegean Sea. The speaker himself is deeply affected by the frightening waves of the sea and human fate. Humans are caught up by eternal suffering. They are trapped in an endless cycle of miseries and hardships. The speaker compares the ebb and flow of the sea waves with the never-ending human misery. The sea is a classic image invested with the idea of divine dignity.
Stanza 3
Due to advancements in science and the increasing materialistic approach of people, faith in the religion is rapidly losing its significance. Skepticism and pessimism have left man vulnerable and dejected. The spiritual and religious faith that was once unbreakable is shaking now. The sea of faith that enveloped the world just like a girdle has receded now. The sea of faith is no longer protecting humanity. People’s minds are full of doubt because science has questioned and challenged religious doctrine and spiritual beliefs. The dominating and loud roar of religion is no more dominant.
The intense and mighty roar of the sea of faith is replaced by a depressing and withdrawing roar. The night wind symbolizes disbelief and doubts. Faith has been gone by the arrival of materialistic science. “Naked shingles’ refers to the stones that are naked because the water has withdrawn. It also hints at the idea that when faith is lost, there is no divine delight to protect us.
Stanza 4
The final stanza expresses the intense despair and sorrow in the mind of the speaker. For the speaker, love is the ultimate support in such a chaotic situation. According to the speaker, love is the only truth in the world of despair and torture. Life is full of commotion and human beings are engulfed by the “darkling plain.” This world has no joy, no love, no hope, and no certainty. Lovers in the poem are experiencing the same suffering. They are united more by the sorrows of the world than by happiness.
Humanity is surrounded by darkness. People are involved in a never-ending battle. They have lost the purpose and meaning of their life. They are fighting in the dark which results in hopelessness and stress.
Form
“Dover Beach” has an unusual form. It is highly irregular. For this reason, this poem does not fit with any specific poetic form. It is considered as an early precursor of free verse. It is evidence of different experimentation done with poetry in the twenty century. There are four stanzas in “Dover Beach” with different lengths. The first stanza is made of fourteen lines, the second is six, the third is eight and the fourth is made of nine lines.
Meter
The meter of this poem is highly unpredictable. As the pattern establishes itself, it is soon disturbed. There is unpredictability in stressed and unstressed syllables and the length of lines as well. The tenth line has iambic pentameter but the twenty-first line has iambic dimeter. This inconsistent meter shows the mental state of the speaker that he is disturbed and worried.
Rhyming Scheme
The rhyming scheme of “Dover Beach” is also irregular. The rhyming scheme of the first stanza is ABACDBDCEFCGFG. Similarly, the rhyming scheme of the other stanza shows a disorder that reflects the speaker’s psyche.
Speaker
The speaker of “Dover Beach” is thought to be Mathew Arnold himself. This poem is a dramatic monologue; therefore, it is considered as an expression of Arnold’s thoughts. The speaker of the poem is lamenting over the loss of faith in religion and God. He is worried about the chaotic situation of the world which is resulting from the advancement in science.
At first, the speaker invites a companion to join him in his musing. The speaker is concerned about the worsening condition of humanity. The monologue of the speaker seems like it is inviting the whole of humanity.
Setting of the Poem
The setting of the poem is obvious from its title: Dover Beach. The poem is set at the Straits of Dover. It is at the East end of the English Channel, joining the North Sea. The speaker is looking at the scenery from his window. There is a calm sea in front of him. Moonlight is reflecting on the water. Tides are coming and going from the shore and the speaker also sees the lights on the French coast.
Tone
The tone of hopelessness is dominant throughout the poem. Although the poem starts with a beautiful image of a calm sea, it evokes the eternal suffering of human beings. In this way, the tone is peaceful and calm at the beginning and mournful at the end.
Narrative Voice
Dover Beach” is written from the perspective of a person who is addressing his beloved throughout the poem. The speaker may be the poet himself. The speaker’s feelings and concerns reflect his melancholy over the fact that the world is losing something important.
The narrative voice in the opening lines expresses the speaker’s observation of the beauty of the scene before him. He desires to share the sweetness and pleasure of the night with his beloved. As he examines the scene, he begins to think about human suffering and the chaotic state of the world.
Symbols
The Sea
The speaker describes the sea in the first line as calm and full of tides. The sea here has a symbolic significance as well. The continuous rise and fall of the tides symbolize eternity. They “begin, and cease, and then again begin,” and results in an “eternal note of sadness.” For Sophocles, this constant rhythm of the waves also symbolized the never-ending cycle of human misery.
The sea symbolizes faith. The speaker refers to the “Sea of Faith.” He describes that in the past, the sea of faith was full but it is retreating now. These retreating waves are leaving the world unprotected. Sea also symbolizes birth and baptism.
The Land
The speaker of the poem notes that cliffs of England’s shore are standing tall, vast, and glimmering. Here, the land symbolizes vastness and greatness. It represents strength and stability.
In contrast, the final image of the poem shows a different aspect of the land. Ignorant armies are fighting on a darkling plain. In this context, the land represents the authority of man and their tendency towards battles and violence. It shows humanity without love, faith, hope, and peace.
The Shore
In the seventh line, the speaker observes the meeting of land and sea. The shoes bring an image of conflict to the poem. The sound produced by the waves when they beat against the land is disturbing. This harsh sound reminds the speaker of the human miseries, loss of faith, and eternal sadness.
Light and Dark
The loss of faith has darkened the world. Throughout the poem, it is the dim light of the moon and not the bright light of the sun. The speaker is witnessing all this at night which means the light is already gone from the world.
For the speaker, the darkness of the night symbolizes the loss of faith. At first, the lights on the French coast are gleaming but they go off then. The speaker of the poem laments over the decline of the light. The darkling pain also symbolizes the confusion of the people who cannot see things.
Literary Devices
Metaphor
It is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two different things that have something in common. In this poem, faith is compared with the sea. Another metaphorical comparison is made between high tides of the sea and the unbreakable faith of people in God and religion. Also, the receding sea waves are compared with the weakest spiritual and religious faith.
Simile
It is a figure of speech in which a similarity between two different things is clearly described by using the word “as” or “like.” A beautiful representation of a simile is seen in the way religious and spiritual faith is compared to a girdle furled around the waist of a person- the speaker says,“ like the folds of a bright girdle furled.” Here, the religious and spiritual faith of people is compared with a belt around the waist of a person. Like a girdle, faith in God and religion also protects human civilization from the evils of the world.
Alliteration
It is the repetition of identical consonant sounds in a series of words in a sentence. For example, the sound /l/ is repeated in “Ah, love, let us be true,” and “To lie before us like a land of dreams.” The sound of /s/ is also repeated in “so various, so beautiful, so new.”
Allusion
It is a reference to other cultures, mythologies, epics, sacred text, and classical literature. In this poem, the speaker mentions Sophocles which is an allusion. Sophocles increases the sense of melancholy of the poem and the speaker.
Anaphora
It is the repetition of the same words at the beginning of sentences or phrases. For example, the word “so” is repeated in “so various, so beautiful, so new.” Similarly, the word “nor” is repeated in “neither joy, nor love, nor light, / nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.”
Pathetic Fallacy
It attributes human emotions to objects. In this poem, the continuous movement of the sea waves is attributed to the “eternal note of sadness” that is experienced by humans.
Personification
The speaker in the poem personifies the night by saying “breath of the night-wind.” He gives a human quality of breathing to the night. The moon is also personified when the speaker says, “moon lies fair.” Also, the pebbles are personified by calling their sound “grating roar.”
Imagery
Imagery is used to make readers perceive things by using their five senses. For example, “the tide is full, the moon lies fair,” “glimmering and vast,” “sweet is the night air,” and “grating roar.” Such imagery presents two contrasting images in the poem. Firstly, it represents a calm and serene world. Secondly, it represents the chaotic world as well.
