Page 369 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes aural experience, which is somehow less beautiful. The lyrical self projects his own feelings of
melancholy on to the sound of “the grating roar /Of pebbles, which the waves draw back, and
fling/ At their return, up the high strand” (ll.9-11). This sound causes an emotion of “sadness”
(l.14) in him.
The second stanza introduces the Greek author Sophocles’ idea of “the turbid ebb and flow of human
misery” (ll.17-18). A contrast is formed to the scenery of the previous stanza. Sophocles apparently
heard the similar sound at the “Aegean” sea (l. 16) and thus developed his ideas. Arnold then
reconnects this idea to the present. Although there is a distance in time and space (“Aegean” —
“northern sea” (L. 20)), the general feeling prevails.
In the third stanza, the sea is turned into the “Sea of Faith” (l.21), which is a metaphor for a time
(probably the Middle Ages) when religion could still be experienced without the doubt that the
modern (Victorian) age brought about through Darwinism, the Industrial revolution, Imperialism,
a crisis in religion, etc.) Arnold illustrates this by using an image of clothes (‘Kleidervergleich’).
When religion was still intact, the world was dressed (“like the folds of a bright girdle furled” (l.
23)). Now that this faith is gone, the world lies there stripped naked and bleak. (“the vast edges
drear/ And naked shingles of the world” (ll. 27-28))
The fourth and final stanza begins with a dramatic pledge by the lyrical self. He asks his love to be
“true” (l.29), meaning faithful, to him. (“Ah, love, let us be true /To one another!” (ll. 29-30)). For
the beautiful scenery that presents itself to them (“for the world, which seems/ To lie before us like
a land of dreams,/ So various, so beautiful, so new” (ll.30-32)) is really not what it seems to be. On
the contrary, as he accentuates with a series of denials, this world does not contain any basic human
values. These have disappeared, along with the light and religion and left humanity in darkness.
“We” (l.35) could just refer to the lyrical self and his love, but it could also be interpreted as the
lyrical self addressing humanity. The pleasant scenery turns into a “darkling plain” (l. 35), where
only hostile, frightening sounds of fighting armies can be heard:
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.” (ll.35-37).
According to Ian Hamilton, these lines refer to a passage in Thukydides, The Battle of Epipolae,
where — in a night encounter — the two sides could not distinguish friend from foe” (144-45).

Analysis

“Dover Beach” is a difficult poem to analyze, and some of its passages and metaphors have become
so well-known that they are hard to see with “fresh eyes”. Arnold begins with a naturalistic and
detailed nightscape of the beach at Dover in which auditory imagery plays a significant role (“Listen!
you hear the grating roar”). The beach, however, is bare, with only a hint of humanity in a light that
“gleams and is gone”. Reflecting the traditional notion that the poem was written during Arnold’s
honeymoon, one critic notes that “the speaker might be talking to his bride”.

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray

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