Dover Beach, by the English critic and poet Matthew Arnold, is one of the most famous poems of the Victorian Age. It was published in 1867 in New Poems but was most probably written as early as 1851. The Victorian Age was a time of great industrial, political, and social change, and many writers expressed anxiety about the lack of old certainties. In “Dover Beach,” Arnold gives voice to this overwhelming sense of worry and hopelessness. Although the poem has a very specific setting, the beach at Dover—the sea in the third stanza of the poem—represents faith: where once it was full and gave comfort, now it ebbs and brings sadness.
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 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. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, 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. 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. 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; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
For Arnold, only personal love may bring consolation. Lovers must be true to one another, because the world itself can no longer offer constancy and security. In one powerful image, Arnold compares the vain struggles of humanity to the confusion of battle, “Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
Although “Dover Beach” is considered a classic expression of its time, it continues to touch readers today. Arnold’s anxiety expands to include the universal, timeless concerns of all human beings through the ages. His poem thus continues to speak to new generations of readers.
For more information about Arnold, see Arnold, Matthew. See also English literature (Later Victorian literature).
