Dover Beach - Argument About the Poem

Topic Draft #5: Argument About the Poem

Throughout the time of descriptive and persuasive poetry, many arguments are made in the way poets write their poems. Sometimes poems are written for just entertainment and joy, while others possess a deeper underlying meaning that provide an argument towards a certain situation. Often times, while the argument is not always visible, the descriptive or sometimes metaphoric language allows for a underlying theme presented by the author the poem in regards with his or her view on an subject of the world.  In “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, few but very large arguments and contentions are made throughout the entire poem. The poem was published around 1867 just after the author visited Southern England with his wife. It was around the time of the great exhibition and England was the most powerful and the most industrious nation in the world. However, upon reading the poem its seems as though Matthew Arnold was not very keen on England, or in a broader sense he seemed to be somewhat cynical and hopeless about the world. Arnold’s biggest argument deals with the idea of confronting the past and how it affects the future.

 It becomes apparent that Arnold does not have much hope for part of the world and that he sees a major loss in the faith of the world. For example, in the beginning of the poem, Arnold discusses the present time “the sea is calm tonight, the tide is full, the moon lies fair.” However as the poem progresses the tone and the mood get more dreary and is filled with less hope and less positive words. The present is discussed in the first stanza creating a solemn yet optimistic mood, whereas the second and third stanzas become more pessimistic and sad. The basis of the argument somewhat yields to the idea that the basis of human existence and happiness is always changing and is a fragile part of humanity. He uses the analogy of the sea to make the argument that goes along with the pessimistically evolving ideals of human existence. For instance, Arnold writes “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.” Arnold is making it clear that the world used to be full of faith and full of people of love, yet the wretched and the miserable things of the world are loud like the waves of the crashing shore.      

In addition, in the third stanza Arnold once again presents the claim that love is not always true and that the dreams or imagination we have seems to be joyful but in reality the world has experience a loss of joy and love. “Ah, love, let us be true/ To one another! For the world, which seems To like before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, hath really, neither joy, nor love, nor light.” Overall, it is apparent that Matthew Arnold is making some relatively large statements towards the status of humanity in regards with faith, joy and love. Although the things during this time period were going rather well for England, Arnold attempts to take a stab at the underlying truths of reality.