Dover Beach

Mehmet Yurttutmus Dover Beach was written in an age of great change and uncertainity. How is this sense of change and spiritual anxiety communicated by poet in Dover Beach? “Dover Beach” was written in an age of great change and uncertainity. In those years scientific inventions and ideas were overwhelming the faith in religions such as evolution theories of Darwin. People were in doubt if that religion and God exists. Arnold was a religious man therefore he wrote a response to these events. He communicates all these to the Dover Beach. From the first stanza of the poem we can see that the poet communicates these God and religion to the French coast seen from the Dover Beach. He refers to faith in god as “on the French coast the light” and then by saying “ Gleams and is gone” he implies that the science revolutionsare taking over the belief to religion slowly. He says that the light of faith was once strong and permenant but now it flickers. Arnold foreshadows and thinks that there wont be any belivers left in the world by saying “the cliffs of England stand;”. These quotes are clearly stating the thoughts of Arnold about the great change in tose ages. The fourth stanza is about the Sea of Faith which is used to describe the uncertainity of people. She refers to the sea as “Was once, too, at full, and round earth’s shore” . He implies the faith in God by the Sea of Faith. Therefore faith was once strong and indispensable. “round earth’s shore” means that sea wraps around the earth protecting it and the faith just like the sea wraps us protecting from doubts, comforting us. Arnold imply that the Sea of Faith has changed to Sea of Doubt by these scientific discoveries. He says that the Sea of Doubt wraps us in uncertainity and make us feel lost and abondoned. He connects the feeling uncertainity to the sea. The last stanza is important because we can clearly see that Arnold gives up on the people who listen to scientific discoveries and people who forget their faiths in God. “Ah, love, let us be true To one another!” He says that the world will not be true so atleast let us be true to each other. Arnold believes the people are lying to themselves, without the faith there cannot be comfort. He compares the world to the “land of dreams”. He connects these anxious times with the standing of him and her wife in it. It is clear that as a religious man Arnold is not supporting the scientific progress. Therefore he expresses his responses by using the Dover Beach metaphor.

Mehmet Yurttutmus