Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold Thomas Hardy

The speaker in “Dover Beach” relates that his world used to be filled with and surrounded by faith, like an ocean or the “sea of faith”, but that this sea has receded, and faith has abandoned his world. Meaning that the speaker has lost the religious belief that he had in the past. He tells the woman he is speaking to that they must cling to one another, because all that they have now that faith has abandoned the world is each other. The reader should be able to relate this much of the poem to the novel by comparing the world of the novel with the world of the poem.



Matthew Arnold was the son of Dr Thomas Arnold. During the summer the family's would vaction in the same area as William Wordsworth. The famous poet William Wordsworth and Matthew Arnold became friends. On route to Europe with his new wife, Lucy Wightman was propably when Arnold wrote Dover Beach. This was most likey in June 1851. This poem however was not published until 1867. "It is a poem of maturity reflecting his own felt need to commit himself and his life."Elements of Literature. These poems highlight his realization that love enhances loneliness, a sense of loss, and is a self-imposed prison. "How vain a thing is human love", "The heart can bind itself alone, and "faith may oft be unreturn'd Self-swayed our feelings ebb and swell" are a few examples of this. Why live or love in the past if you can do it everyday of your new life.