Literary Analysis Of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach

As humans, we all have one thing we are very passionate about. In difficult time, one can all resort back to this specific passion and it helps give a sense of relief. But what if suddenly that one key passion in life was being taken away little by little? Poet, Matthew Arnold captured this experience in his free verse poem “Dover Beach.” Arnold was a very passionate towards Christ, and in the mid 1800’s Christianity began dying out all across his homeland, England. Arnold wrote this free verse sitting on the shore of Dover Beach, suggesting the setting and the title of the poem, with his newly wedded wife to express his sadness of his nation losing faith. In this poem, Arnold uses multiple literary devices to illustrate his sadness towards

Throughout the stanza Arnold refers back to a Greek God and uses senses to help the reader have a better understanding of a specific line. As Arnold further describes the overall theme of the poem he alludes back to an ancient Greek tragedians, “Sophocles long ago / heard it on the Aegean.” This line is used to help individuals remember the play, Aegean, where Sophocles tells people God can visit people through the wind. Arnold then concludes the second stanza in lines nineteen and twenty by saying, “Find also in the sound a thought, / Hearing it by this distant northern sea,” (19-20). By referring to “Find” (19) and “Hearing” (20) Arnold expresses that he hears the same sound on Dover Beach as Sophocles did at

I found this poem to give a good detailed interpretation of how dark this world would be if we did not have the light of Jesus Christ to follow. While I was surprised about how sad and dark this poem was, however, I was very humbled to know that spirituality in my hometown is great and will never have to experience the way England did in the mid 1800’s first hand. I admire Arnold’s ability to get his message across through a four stanza, free verse poem leaving his reader feeling of sorrow for the author. “Dover Beach” is a remarkable poem about events many individuals did not know occurred, and help readers to think deeply about how much one appreciates being able to express spirituality and how much it means to