Essay/Term paper: Dover beach

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

How can life or anything be so wonderful, but at times seem

so unbearable? This is a question that Matthew Arnold may

have asked himself one day, while writing "Dover Beach".

This is a poem about a sea and a beach that is truly beautiful,

but hold much deeper meaning than what meets the eye. The

poem is written in free verse with no particular meter or

rhyme scheme, although some of the words do rhyme.

Arnold is the speaker speaking to someone he loves. As the

poem progresses, the reader sees why Arnold poses the

question stated above, and why life seems to be the way it

is. During the first part of the poem Arnold states, "The Sea

is calm tonight" and in line 7, "Only, from the long line of

spray". In this way, Arnold is setting the mood or scene so

the reader can understand the point he is trying to portray. In

lines 1-6 he is talking about a very peaceful night on the ever

so calm sea, with the moonlight shining so intensely on the

land. Then he states how the moonlight "gleams and is gone"

because the "cliffs of England" are standing at their highest

peaks, which are blocking the light of the moon. Next, the

waves come roaring into the picture, as they "draw back and

fling the pebbles" onto the shore and back out to sea again.

Arnold also mentions that the shore brings "the eternal note

of sadness in", maybe representing the cycles of life and

repetition. Arnold then starts describing the history of

Sophocle's idea of the "Aegean's turbid ebb and flow". The

sea is starting to become rougher and all agitated. Also the

mention of "human misery" implies that life begins and ends,

but it can still be full of happiness, and unfortunately, at the

same time, sadness. "The Sea of Faith was once, too, at the

full, and round earth's shore." The key word in that stanza is

once, because it implies that he (Arnold) used to look at the

sea in a different way than he does now. Throughout the

whole poem, Arnold uses a metaphor to describe his views

and opinions. Now he only hears its "melancholy, long,

withdrawing roar." It seems as though Arnold is questioning

his own faith. The whole poem is based on a metaphor - Sea

to Faith. When the sea retreats, so does faith, and leaves us

with nothing. In the last nine lines, Arnold wants his love and

himself to be true to one another. The land, which he thought

was so beautiful and new, is actually nothing - "neither joy,

nor love, nor light". In reality, Arnold is expressing that

nothing is certain, because where there is light there is dark

and where there is happiness there is sadness. "We are here

though as on a darkling plain, swept with confused alarms of

struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash at night".

Arnold uses much alliteration in the poem. For example, in

line 31, "To lie before us like a land of dreams", repeating

the letter L at the beginning of three words. Also, in line 4,

"Gleams and is gone…", repeating the letter G. The usage of

assonance and consonance is not widespread in "Dover

Beach". In line 3 - "…on the French coast the light" - the

repetition of the letter T is shown, as an example of

consonance. Other literary techniques, such as

onomatopoeia and hyperbole, are not used in the poem,

besides the metaphor for "Faith" being the Sea. The diction

Arnold uses creates a sense of peacefulness and calmness. It

is fairly easily understood vocabulary, with the exception of a

few words, such as cadence and darkling. From reading

Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach", one realizes that there is

no certainty in life. When everything is going perfectly,

something unfortunate may happen at any given time, with no

forewarning.