About the poet and region :
Matthew Arnold is the representative poet of th Victorian Age. The troubled melancholy ıs the Keynote of his poetry and reflects the Victorian Age. Matthew Arnold wrote the Dover Beach after he and is wife made to Dover region in South-Eastern England in 1851. The town of Dover is closer to France than any other port city. The body of the water separating the coastline of the town from the coast of France is the strait of Dover, North of English channel and south of the North Sea.
Explanation Of Dover Beach :
First Stanza :
Arnold begins the poem with a conventinal explanation of seashore in moonlight. The sea is calmi the moonlight falls on the sea and on the rocks of English coast. On the French, coast the light blinks on and off, the cliffs glimmer and the whole beach is brightened by the light of moon. At that moment, Arnold calls his wife to join him at the window and enjoy the sweet air that means to say that whole sea is pleasant, tranquil and calm. The next 2 lines marks a transition in the stanza, which descries the result of the sea meeting the land, introduces action and even contention in this poem. In direct contrast to his peaceful and pleasing description of the seashore, the speaker begins to contemplate the movement of the waves. He uses words like; "grating roar", "fling" to achieve a feeling of tension and energy. The waves comes with great force onto the shore and leave the pebbles naked on the shore. As the pebbles comes to shore, they causes a grating roar. Here the grating roar introduces conflict between the sea and land and symbolically between the long held religious beliefs and challenges against them. The endless motion of the waves evokes sadness in the speaker. "Eternal note of sadness" is echoed again later in the phrase"human misery" and seems to describe the malice of mankind throughout the history.
Second Stanza :
In the second stanza, poet considers the Greek writer Sophocles abd wonders if long ago in the ancient Greece, this writer may have sat beside the Aegean Sea and has also been reminded of the endless suffering of man. Again Arnold liken sadness to the constant motion of the sea, which he tells in the words "The turbid ebb and flow of human misery". Though observing a different sea, a poet like Sophocles finds a larger message in the motion of the sea rather than visual image of water.
Third Stanza :
In the third stanze, Arnold expresses the idea that watching the sea has elicited. The "sea of faith" is a metaphor for faith in God that comforted mankind in earlier periods. Like the ocean at high tide, which surrounds the land, faith used to control people's lifes. The context of the poem suggests that faith provided meaning and comfort in past ages. However, "the sea of faith" has receded like the "ebb of waves" and has given place to sea of doubt. Here Arnold employs words like melancholy, withdrawing roar, retreating, drear, naked etc. to convey the message of loss and despair. Now the waves roar and wind blows down the dark sea. The sea is no longer calm the night air is no longer sweet.
Fourth Stanza :
In the fourth stanza, the poet addresses the companion directly. He beseeches her that they must comfort each other and be faithful to one other, because the world has became selfish, cynical, materialistic and without morals. There is much hatred and pain and there is no guiding light. Although the world presents itself as a dreamland, but in reality it is not the same. It offers nothing to ease our journey through life. Only the loyality and comfort of personal relationships can fill the void produced by disappearing faith in God.
