In 1867 Arnold wrote his most famous poem "Dover Beach". He wrote this not so long after he was married and it is perceived to be addressed to his wife. It is possible that Arnold wrote this poem while on the shore side of Dover Beach. This poem is about Arnold's battle with life, love, and faith in religion. He uses images, diction, tone, sounds and conflict to relay how he feels to the reader. The images are seen throughout Arnold's work. The image of the sea is seen throughout the poem. Sometimes it is seen as a physical thing or setting. Since Dover Beach is part of the English Channel or know by Sophocles as the Aegean Sea. The sea is also used as a metaphor for the destiny of humanity by calling it "The Sea of Faith"(21).
A lot of the diction helps to inflict the tone of the poem which in turn defines alot of the sounds. At the beginning of the poem it starts off "calm"(1). The tone that the speaker speaks with (which the I caught on my second reading because you won't catch the inflections at first) is very soothing and relaxing as the poem moves along. The tone of the poem changes up when he tells the reader to "Listen! you hear the grating roar"(9) "Of the pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling"(10). Which means he want you to pay attention to the sound that of the water makes when it "flings"(10) the pebbles back and forth. This movement creates a harsh, unpleasant like sound that can be very much irritating. This point is also the climax of the poem. In the last stanza his word choice of saying that "Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light"(33) is very undeviating. It seems that he is saying that there is a lack of those feelings or there just are not any. .
Arnold has a lot of conflicting emotions and feelings in this poem.Throughout the poem he brings up how he is "Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight" (36).