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.