Dover Beach: Summary: 2022

Dover Beach: Summary

The open of the poem Dover Beach begins with a serene description of the sea by the poet who stood on the coast to enjoy the captivating beauty of the sea. A mood of sensory awareness is as the landscape composed of the tranquil sea, moonlight and the strait gives a picture that is constituted of balance, stability, and harmony. The strait refers to the Strait of Dover between the English Channel and the North Sea. The light that ‘gleams and is gone’ in the literal sense brings into the picture a light that’s flickering on the French coast. Metaphorically, however, the light is regarded as the fluctuating faith in God and religion.

The Weighty Rallentando, with which a series of affirmations occur in the first sentence, signifies that faith loss cannot destroy God’s dignity. Moonlight creates a sense of melancholy, meditation, and despair. The natural scene is amalgamated with a sense of spiritual security established by the words calm, full, fair, and tranquil. The cliffs of England, composed of eroding limestone, chalk, make it look bright and huge. The concept of eroding furthers the theme of the weakening of faith in human beings.

The speaker calls his companion to join him in experiencing the delight that nature is. It is a tender appeal to pause and participate as Arnold seeks companionship. The poet could anticipate the shift in human ideology from the Christian tradition to the impersonal world of Darwin and other scientists.  

A beautiful image is evoked as the beach is drenched with water drops and blanched with the bright moonlight makes the sand look white.  The jarring roar of the pebbles caused by the sea’s ebb and flow creates a striking contrast to the pleasant atmosphere described in the first few lines. It produces a depressing, tragic, and undulating appeal. The continuous and endless movements of the waves bring in a deep sense of melancholy- an “eternal note of sadness” in human life.

It is an allusion to the famous tragic poet Sophocles. The despondent and monotonous sound of the waves reminds him of the despair with which Sophocles observed the misery and suffering of human beings in life as he heard the melancholic sound of the waves of the Aegean Sea. The poet, too, finds himself deeply affected by the tragic aspect of the sea and of human fate. Nobody is free from the eternal sufferings that human beings find themselves in. The disordered rise and fall of human misery are symbolic of the ebb and flow of the sea waves. The sea is an archetypal image invested with the sentiment of divine dignity.

The faith in a religion that, owing to advancement in science and materialism, was rapidly losing its significance is compared to a sea. A sense of doubt and despair pervaded, leaving man vulnerable and dejected. The spiritual and religious faith that was once unbreakable was shivering now. The sea of faith that enveloped the world just like a girdle is fastened around the waist of an individual has now receded. The sea no longer conducts the act of ablution around earth’s human shores. Science questioned and challenged religious and spiritual ideas, inducing doubts in people’s minds. The dominating and loud roar of religious faith was now retreating.

The strength, loud and intense roar of the sea of faith was now replaced by a gloomy and withdrawing roar. The night wind here symbolizes disbelief and doubts. Faith has been darkened by science. ‘Naked shingles,’ in the literal sense, refers to the pebbles that are naked because the water has receded. However, it hints at the idea that when faith is lost, there is no divine delight to clothe us. Swinburne’s remark rightly fits into this context as he says- “The clothes are well enough, but where has the body gone?

The final paragraph opens with an expression of intense despair and sorrow pent up in the mind of the poet. Love is invoked as the ultimate solace with a sense of a certain consolation. According to the poet, in a world that deception, lies, and gloom have tormented, love is the ultimate truth. The world seems to be like a deceptive land of dreams which culminates in hopelessness and pain. The reality is contrasted to the appearance and illusion of trust life to be. Life is a cacophony of turmoil in which human beings are swallowed by the ‘darkling plain’ where there is no joy, no love, no faith, no certainty, no harmony, and no help. Lovers in their common suffering require the comfort of constancy as we, as human beings, are more often brought together more by sorrow than by happiness.

A kind of darkness surrounds human destiny as they clash with each other on vague alarms with a sense of primitivism and savagery. And the clash is as endless as time and tide. Humanity has lost its substance and spirit as they indulge in meaningless acts of battles and wars, spreading only despair and hopelessness. You can also refer to Dover Beach: Tone, Central Idea, and Figures of Speech here.