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Dover Beach

            How can a person's faith be measured? Faith cannot be seen, but it can be felt by others. People feel love everyday, but love like faith cannot be seen. Everyone needs to have faith in at least one thing because faith is our source of hope. In the poem "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold he writes that with belief we need hope to survive in this dark world in which we live. The speaker in the poem is standing on the cliffs of Dover at night over looking the sea. He is talking to his love with his concerns about keeping his faith. Mr. Arnold uses a variety of poetic devices to emphasize his theme that all of mankind must keep their faith alive in order to deal with the curve balls that life may throw. .
             Mr. Arnold uses the first stanza of the poem to create visual, auditory, and olfactory images that will allow the reader to picture the sea of which the speaker is viewing. The poet begins immediately with visual and auditory imagery when describing the sea as "calm"(1). In more detail the speaker describes the "tide [as] full"(2) in the "moon"(2) light(4). This image suggests that there is life out there, but that it is smothered by the darkness. The "cliffs of England"(4) are "glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay"(5). The poet uses visual imagery to describe in detail the cliffs sparkling in the moonlight. At this point he has someone to "come to the window"(6) and enjoy the "sweet night air"(6). The speaker tells his companion that one can see "where the sea meets the moon-blanched land"(8) through a "long line of spray"(7). The words, "long line"(7) and "meets moon"(8) are more examples of alliteration. The poet uses assonance when he uses the words "sea meets"(8) and consonance when he uses the words "blanched land"(8). Also in the following lines, the poet uses auditory imagery so the reader can "hear the grating roar/of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling"(9-10).


Essays Related to Dover Beach

1. Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

In 1867 Arnold wrote his most famous poem "Dover Beach". ... It is possible that Arnold wrote this poem while on the shore side of Dover Beach. ... Since Dover Beach is part of the English Channel or know by Sophocles as the Aegean Sea. ... He makes the comparison of the world to a wet and dismal beach is very much hair raisingly bleak. ... On one hand some might call "Dover Beach" a love poem. ...

  • Word Count: 638
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Crossing the Bar andDover Beach

"Crossing the Bar" and "Dover Beach" are two basically unlike poems that have something in common. ... In "Dover Beach", Arnold uses the ocean as a metaphor of the sea and faith. This is a poem about sea and a beach that is truely beautiful, but hold much deeper meaning than what meets the eye. ... The ocean is used as a metaphor in "Crossing the Bar" and "Dover Beach". ...

  • Word Count: 365
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Dover Beach

"Dover Beach", written by Mathew Arnold uses an exquisitely calm ocean filled with tension to present a position of appearance verses reality. ... "Dover Beach" is about a beautifully calm sea, although when looking underneath the surface, it is a world full of hidden turbulence. ... Dover Beach is described as, "calm [that night], the tide is full, the moon lies fair," and all seems right. The appearance of Dover Beach at this time is only of what the human senses can envision. Arnold looks beneath the surface of Dover Beach and unveils the true nature of the sea. ...

  • Word Count: 728
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold's dramatic monologue "Dover Beach" portrays the way in which perceptions are deceptive. ... Rhythm and meter are the most important devices in "Dover Beach". ... With this description one can imagine a beautiful beach with water lapping upon the shore. ... "Dover Beach" illustrates the complexity of the human mind. ...

  • Word Count: 782
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold's dramatic monologue "Dover Beach" portrays the way in which perceptions are deceptive. ... Rhythm and meter are the most important devices in "Dover Beach". ... With this description one can imagine a beautiful beach with water lapping upon the shore. ... "Dover Beach" illustrates the complexity of the human mind. ...

  • Word Count: 782
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Dover Beach

In Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach," he uses the evolutionary symbol of the sea, or water. ... Also in line nine, the waves upon the beach create a "grating roar," in line ten, they fling, and eventually in line thirteen and the sea becomes melancholy sea once again, "With tremulous cadence slow." ... The second stanza also seems to detach the speaker from Dover Beach, when he calls the sea "northern and distant." ... This is the final evolution of the sea (or beach), as it serves as a battleground for blind armies. ...

  • Word Count: 519
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Poem Comparison Dover Beach

"Dover Beach" and "The Impercipient" a comparison During the Victorian period Britain experienced many changes. ... In the poem "Dover Beach" Arnold suggests that love and personal relationships may be turned to. ... Arnold's speaker is looking out on the straits of Dover on a moonlight night. ... "Dover Beach" presents an attractive seascape in its opening six lines. ... He inhabits a similar world to the speaker of "Dover Beach". ...

  • Word Count: 1759
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Dover Beach And The Victorian Age

Dover Beach and the Victorian Age The Victorian Age brought about a new civilization. ... In both, "Dover Beach," and in his essay, "Culture and Anarchy," Arnold expresses the melancholy of a lost civilization, foresees its future, and seeks out a solution. ... In his poem, "Dover Beach," Arnold expresses his own lament of the changing times. ... The cliffs surrounding the Sea of Religion are, "vast edges drear," and its beaches are, "naked shingles of the world." ... In his poem, "Dover Beach," he pleads his lover to remain true to one another. ...

  • Word Count: 1629
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Fahrenheit 451, Dover Beach Poem

The poem "Dover Beach", in the book Fahrenheit 451, was chosen by Ray Bradbury because of its representation of the world. The world in the poem, like the world in the novel, used to have diversity, knowledge, and human connection. Now those qualities are lost. Both worlds were once "at the full...

  • Word Count: 465
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

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