Dover Beach2

Poet, Matthew Arnold, presents a very real theme of love in his poem, Dover Beach. Where he creates a scene of beauty among the sea and shores, mixed with night and moonlight, he also is presenting us with the underlying misery, which is easily over looked and disregarded. Arnold writes, really, of love and loss, and relates it to beauty with hidden misery.

The first stanza of the poem paints a picture for the reader of beautiful nighttime off the shores of England and France, where the water and the moonlight reflect each other’s beauty. “The sea is calm tonight / The tide is full, the moon lies fair / Upon the straits;” (1-3). But, as the poem goes on, Arnold reveals the same secret misery to the reader that the scene eventually reveals to the speaker. He talks of the surface beauty of the world that disguises what has happened in the past. This is Arnold’s way of expressing to us that love is “love” because of all it’s beauty, happiness, and perfection. But, only certain loves are true, so in other words, like the world holds much sadness in its’ history, love as well becomes saddened or lost, or holds great potentials to be saddened or lost. “…on the French coast the li

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Some common words found in the essay are:
England France, Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold, dover beach, arnold writes, true love, naked shingles, love love, french coast, light / gleams, sea calm tonight, calm tonight, arnold writes listen, inner conflicts, sea calm, dark light,
Approximate Word count = 1394
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)