"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold starts by painting a peaceful picture of the Dover strait between France and England with its “cliffs” and “moon-blanched land.” The scene, however, is not what it seems. The constant roar of the turbid water on the beach, churning up pebbles, is meant to convey sadness and that because of human misery. The reference to Sophocles, although historical, also alludes the misery of his plays. It indicates that the ebb and flow of the ocean brought Sophocles the inspiration for writing about human misery just as much as the ebb and flow of the English channel’s water does for the narrator. While the imagery remains similar, the metaphorical meanings seem to switch at the beginning of the third stanza. He laments the loss of faith, presumably in God, that he observes all around him. The faith which used to be so complete around the world (at least the Western world) is receding like the tide over the beaches. Despite the narrator’s apparent displeasure at the loss of faith, he does not cling to God but to his love in the final stanza. His understanding of the value in faith recedes with the rest of the world. Everything is falling apart around him (33-37). He indicates that the world which seems to be so wonderful, ebbs and flow like the sea, and has no solace for the times of suffering. The Bible instructs believers to cling to God because the world will fail them as Arnold realizes, but the narrator here rejects his faith in favor of something more tangible, his lover. Diction associated with storms can be traced throughout the poem, which reflects the turmoil within the speaker caused by the empty hope in the world and in his faith. The tone is forlorn with the speaker lamenting the state of the universe.