Dover Beach Poem Analysis

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Dover Beach Poem Analysis  

In "Dover Beach," a poem written by Mathew Arnold's, it starts with calmness and a welcoming tone of a man staring outside from the window. Arnold addresses someone from inside the house to come and watch the tides of the sea through the window. Arnold convinces the person from inside to get closer and enjoy the night air describing it as sweet. In continuation of the poem, we can tell that he is getting confused about life and its meaning. Arnold brings about suspense through use of imagery where he describes what he sees from the outside. Later, tides move, making some noise wiping away the calmness in the sea. Arnold tries to explain changes in humanity, where he uses some similes and metaphors to bring the audience of the poem to what he views reality as in the poem.

            In lines 8-11, Arnold is trying to express the beauty of the sea at a point where the waters meet the moon-blanched land, with some pebbles glittering as the waves draw back. According to this statement, Arnold compares the life of a person with the waves that flow on the sea repeatedly, meaning the rise and fall of humanity in a sequence of events. The comparison proves that he has uncertainty in the meaning of life and does not understand the conspiracy behind it (Midgley 2008). First, he talks of how calm the waters are in the sea and then bothered by the noise produced by the tides. In lines 11-14, he explains how changes occur in the sea as water comes back, describing how good things change and bring about sadness. Here, he seems to have some problems in figuring out how life changes and leaves us without an option and a place to end the doubts about what destiny and nature cannot change.

When Arnold uses similes to compare the life of a person with the sea, he brings about the concept of war that occurred many years ago, claiming many lives. In lines 15-20, he remembers how human misery began. He talks about hearing about war from a distance until it came to reality and people seeing it right at their doorstep. In continuation of lines 21-22, he says, "the sea of faith was once too, at the full and round earth's shores." In the lines, he explains how people had full faith, and it spread all over the place (Seiden 2012). The simile compares water filling the shores to the faith once filling the lands. He continues in lines 23-26 to describe how things changed comparing them to the roar he hears from the sea. He seems to have some negative attitude towards how things change quickly, leading to loss of faith and peace on land, where nobody would trust anyone as a friend or an enemy.

            Arnold shows sadness in the following lines 27-28. He is sad about how people live and is not sure about what will happen in the future. He comforts himself in lines 29-32, where he tries to talk about love and bringing back the peace in the lands (Ireland 56-75). According to the lines, he says that it is worth bringing back the old love in the land to reunite people back to normal and all things at rest like before. He says it should rest peacefully like the land of dreams indicating the wiped away of bad memories.

            Arnold uses the beach differently in lines 1-14 and 21-28. In lines 1-14, he praises the old times where everything was calm, and people lived in peace. Then, it came to a point when things changed and turned out that sadness worked out the best part of human suffering. From this, we can feel the changes and shifting of events from a good to a bad mood when Arnold has the flashbacks of the past (Ireland 56-75). It is from lines 21-28 that he describes how the flashbacks reveal when there is the fading of faith and people turning against their kind.

            Change in tone occurs in lines 1-8 and 35-37. It changes from happiness to sadness. From lines 1-8, it shows how good and peaceful the land was for everyone to see and enjoy. The silence and peace that reigned in the land compared to the calmness of waters in the sea. Later in lines 35-37, the tone changes and Arnold becomes sad about how ruthless soldiers would attack their land making the peace fly away and never come back. The peace at night ended and it turned out to sorrow during the nights when the attacks happened.

            In conclusion, we can say that Mathew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is a poem that tries to solve unfinished puzzles about life. First, it appears that life is sweet in the beginning, but as times change, sorrow falls. He wonders of what religion brings in human lives if faith is lost. People change from whom they are to resembles ignorant soldiers. Arnold explains how loss of faith can lead to lack of peace and happiness. He finds it depressing to explain and understand what life means when he lacks the importance of living.

 

Works Cited

Ireland, Rowan. "Religion on Dover beach." The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 22, no. 1, 2011, pp. 56-75.

Midgley, Mary. "Concluding Reflections: Dover Beach Revisited." Oxford Handbooks Online, 2008.

Seiden, Henry M. "Finding in the Sound a Thought: Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach." PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2012.