How does the poem Dover Beach manage to convey the poets disgust and sense of hopelessness so well?

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How does the poem Dover Beach manage to convey the poet’s disgust and sense of hopelessness so well?

The poem ‘Dover Beach’ by Mathew Arnold conveys the upsetting views of the poet that the world is turning its back on religion. Told mostly in first person perspective, we see a change in the speaker’s perception from seeing the world as soothing and hopeful but his thoughts turn to disgust and hopelessness. Arnold does this by using an extended metaphor littered with strong imagery and sensual sounds.

The first stanza of the poem introduces the soothing setting of Dover Beach on the English coast. The poet describes the sea as “calm to-night. The tide is full, the moon lies fair”, lines which set the reader at ease and gently let us feel the beauty of this scene. When we read on to the second stanza we hear “the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling”. This more aggressive line indicates that the sea that was acting so peacefully is now turning violent. The sound of the waves is described as “the eternal note of sadness”. We really get the feeling that the poet is disturbed by these sounds in the poem.

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His disgust at this ‘sea change’ is evident in the third stanza when he describes “human misery” as a “turbid ebb and flow”. The ebbing and flowing of the sea seems to be disturbing the speaker’s mind to the point that the upset can be heard on the “distant northern sea”. As if this storm were a disease, it is spreading far and wide and reducing the speaker’s hope that the sea may return to its calm state.

In stanza four, the central extended metaphor is released by the line “The Sea of Faith”. In this metaphor the ‘sea’ ...

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