“Dover Beach” Introduction

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“Dover Beach” Summary

“Dover Beach” Themes

• 

  Loss of Faith and Certainty

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• 

  Nature and Alienation

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• 

  Love

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Dover Beach”

• Lines 1-3

  The sea is calm tonight. 
  The tide is full, the moon lies fair 
  Upon the straits;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-5

  on the French coast the light 
  Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, 
  Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-14

  Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! 
  Only, from the long line of spray 
  Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, 
  Listen! you hear the grating roar 
  Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, 
  At their return, up the high strand, 
  Begin, and cease, and then again begin, 
  With tremulous cadence slow, and bring 
  The eternal note of sadness in.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-20

  Sophocles long ago 
  Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought 
  Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow 
  Of human misery; we 
  Find also in the sound a thought, 
  Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-28

  The Sea of Faith 
  Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore 
  Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. 
  But now I only hear 
  Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 
  Retreating, to the breath 
  Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear 
  And naked shingles of the world.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-34

  Ah, love, let us be true 
  To one another! for the world, which seems 
  To lie before us like a land of dreams, 
  So various, so beautiful, so new, 
  Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, 
  Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 35-37

  And we are here as on a darkling plain 
  Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 
  Where ignorant armies clash by night.

  

  

  

  

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“Dover Beach” Symbols

• 

  The Sea

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“Dover Beach” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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“Dover Beach” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• straits
• moon-blanched
• strand
• tremulous
• cadence
• Sophocles
• Aegean
• turbid
• ebb
• girdle
• furled
• drear
• shingles
• certitude
• Darkling

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Dover Beach”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Dover Beach” Speaker

“Dover Beach” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Dover Beach”

More “Dover Beach” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Map — A map showing the geographical position of Dover Beach in relation to France.

  • A Reading — Reading of the poem by actor Tom Hiddlestone.

  • "Calais Sands" — Another poem by Matthew Arnold, this time set on the opposite shore in France.

  • Portraits and Photographs — Portraits and photographs of the poet held in London's National Portrait Gallery.

  • A Painting of Dover — A painting of the white cliffs of Dover by JW Turner.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Matthew Arnold

  • Growing Old