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Dover Beach

            Matthew Arnold's dramatic monologue "Dover Beach" portrays the way in which perceptions are deceptive. The use of technical qualities, symbolism, and imagery helps to support the speaker's thoughts between what is seen and what is real.
             Rhythm and meter are the most important devices in "Dover Beach". These mechanisms allow Arnold to use words as a way to portray the speaker's struggle. Figures of speech, sounds, and irony of words are also used. Line one; "The Sea is calm tonight" has a gentle rhythm that can be compared to the "ebb and flow" of the sea. With this description one can imagine a beautiful beach with water lapping upon the shore. The second line also gives the image of a calm sea. It is not until line three that the rhythm is broken. This line begins and ends with an iamb but the middle is broken up. The choppiness in the sentence is a foreshadowing of potential problems to come. In the fourth line the poem's rhythm continues to be broken up, but shortly after is recovered in line five. The rhyme scheme is: ABACD, with only the first and third lines rhyming. This lack of pattern is used to provide an image of struggle within the speaker. In the second stanza, the number of feet per measure does not project a pattern. This is supposed to create a sense of misunderstanding. The false impression of the rhythm covers the inner struggle in the speaker.
             The sounds of Arnold's poem help convey the speaker's internal quandary. "You hear the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling", this quote gives the stanza an acoustic value. "On the French coast the light gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, glimmering and vast," portrays a visual picture of what is present at the scene. Arnold utilizes pleasing words to the ear when blissful times are present and harsh ones at time of depression and sadness. .
             The sounds of the poem do not only display the speaker's struggle but they also show the fundamental theme of light and dark.


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
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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
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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
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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

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
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6. 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
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7. 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

8. Dover Beach

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. ... We not only feel the wind because the poet uses tactile imagery, but we can picture the deserted beach with his visual imagery as well. ...

  • Word Count: 854
  • Approx Pages: 3
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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
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