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

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling

The turning point in the poem begins to appear where Arnold writes:

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

So various, so beautiful, so new,

This is also the turning point in love when it goes sour. This is a serene scene shattered by a disturbing noise, which doesn't seem to fit the picture of beauty that he is looking at. This goes for love, too. Arnold writes, "Listen!" because for two people in love, it is easy to miss the small hints of bad times arising, unless you truly listen or look for it. The pebbles represent the quarreling, the arguments, or even the problems, that may begin between two lovers, but are over looked as something that is potentially bad. The pebbles are tossed back and forth, like the harsh words, but then stop when the tide goes out - when waters are calm, when love is calm. Then they begin again and repeat their process, like the arguments between distancing lovers, which seem to continue on in patterns. Eventually, like the pebbles bring in with them the memories of soldiers washing to the shores, or the memories of the harsh battles clashing with the shore, more and more, the sadness comes in and builds itself up, and eventually ends the love.

Arnold is explaining in this poem that there is little protection from this destroyer of love and beauty. The destroyer is inevitable if the elements of earth, or the elements of the situation are headed in that direction.

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

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