Famous poet and literary critic, Matthew Arnold was born on December 24, 1822 as the second son of Mary Arnold and Thomas Arnold. He began his career as a poet, gaining recognition from his youth as a student at Rugby School, where his father was headmaster, noted for his stewardship of the school. Arnold completed his degree at Oxford in 1844 and returned to Rugby School as a teacher. In June 1851 he married Frances Lucy, daughter of Sir William Wightman, after he had finally been appointed Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, thus solving his problem of financial instability which had long prevented him from marrying. He is considered by some to be the third great Victorian poet, along with Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning. He gained prominence in English literature not only as a poet but also as a great critic, whose criticism focuses on various branches of knowledge: literature, journalism and social sciences, as well as religion. Even after his sudden and untimely death due to cardiac arrest in 1888, Arnold's position in English literature as an extraordinary Victorian writer, poet, and critic remains unchanged. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "Dover Beach", although originally published in 1867, is believed to have been written around the year 1851. The poem is set near Dover, a town in the south-east of England, where the poet and his wife Frances Lucy honeymooned in 1851. Thus, this arrangement establishes the popular presumption that the characters in this poem, the speaker and the silent listener, are the poet and his wife themselves. The poem, despite the use of simple language and an ordinary setting, is not easy to analyze. It takes the form of a dramatic monologue, a type of lyric poem very commonly used and perfected by Robert Browning, where the poem consists of a character's speech to a silent audience. However, unlike Browning's famous dramatic monologues, the poem is commonly considered to have been spoken by the poet himself and not by a fictional character. The poem is characterized by numerous metaphors and vivid images; starting with a line “The sea is calm tonight” (Arnold 1), followed by a detailed and lucid description of the setting, the picture drawn by the opening lines is quite vivid. Through these simple yet strong lines, Arnold first provides his readers with a clear description of the setting in which the poem was written, which is a night on Dover beach, overlooking the calm sea, watching the full tide and the clear moon. The power of visual imagery dominates these opening lines as the poet continues to provide even more explicit detail to describe the place, a place where he can see the light shining on the French coast, with the vast cliffs of England standing tall, glittering “out in the quiet bay” (Arnold 5). This description adds very obvious details about the geographic location of the setting. The first stanza, which comprises 14 lines, towards the middle introduces a listener, who the poet has asked to "come to the window" (Arnold 6), later we see a shift from the visual imagery of the opening lines to auditory imagery. The poet asks his listener to hear the “shrill roar” (Arnold 9) of the pebbles, giving such a powerful description to a sound created by something as mundane as the pebbles, that the narrative tone can be seen to shift from subtle, vivid, and simple description of the setting seen in the opening verses to a much more exaggerated, aggressive and melancholic tone towards the end of the verse. The poem is characterized bynumerous metaphors and vivid images, starting with a line "The sea is calm tonight" (Arnold 1), followed by a detailed and lucid description of the setting, the picture drawn by the first lines is quite vivid. Through theseWith simple but strong lines, Arnold first gives his readers a clear description of the setting in which the poem was written, which is a night on Dover beach, overlooking the calm sea, observing the full tide and the clear moon. The power of visual imagery dominates these opening lines as the poet continues to provide an even more explicit detail to describe the place: a place where he can see the light shining on the French coast, with the vast cliffs of England standing tall, glittering “out in the quiet bay” (Arnold 5). This description adds very obvious details about the geographic location of the setting. The first stanza, which comprises 14 lines, towards the middle, introduces a listener who the poet has asked to “come to the window” (Arnold 6), later we see a shift from the visual imagery of the opening lines to auditory imagery. The poet asks his listener to hear the “shrill roar” (Arnold 9) of the pebbles, giving such a powerful description to a sound created by something as mundane as the pebbles, that the narrative tone can be seen to shift from subtle, vivid, and simple description of the setting seen in the opening lines to a much more exaggerated, aggressive and melancholy tone towards the end of the verse. “He catches us, as it were, in a verbal storm, and the force of what he says becomes for a moment the understanding of what he says.” (Buckler 103). What began as a serene nature scene with the presentation of a rather beautiful place with tranquil imagery, ended with a melancholy description of the waves violently carrying the “eternal note of sadness” (Arnold 14). The next verse took on the same melancholy tone with which the first verse ended; By introducing a Greek allusion to the great classical figure of Sophocles, Arnold draws a connection between himself and the great playwright. It speaks of Sophocles contemplating human misery through the “ebb and flow” (Arnold 17) of the Aegean Sea as he himself is doing in this poem. The third stanza opens with an introduction to the calm English Channel of the previous stanzas as a metaphorical “Sea of ​​faith” (Arnold 21), which was once, like the beginning of the poem, “at its best,” giving a introduction to the poem's central idea of ​​the dying faith of Christian society in Arnold's time. The poet tells the listener how he now feels only the melancholy of this “Sea of ​​Faith” (Arnold 21), once rising to its fullest, now retreating with a “retreating roar.” Some often argue that the final stanza is a separate poem because there is a change in narrative tone. However this stanza can still be connected to the previous stanzas; with a different vision of the world after the death of the Christian faith seen in the first three stanzas, the poet asks his listener to be faithful to him, as he will be to her, since that seems to be the only thing that matters to him now that the world seems hopeless and devoid of true joy. The poem, being one of Arnold's most significant poems, has received several critical assessments, most of which are contradictory to each other. However, the recurring theme of melancholy that usually makes up most of his works is undeniably evident in this poem as well. “There is… Arnold's well-known melancholy: the man of little faith in a world without faith, still hoping to maintain the spiritual dignity that the world without faith seems to deny him.” (Krierger 40). The poem is often read as a testament to point changesof views and beliefs brought by the New Science of the mid-nineteenth century. Charles Lylell's discovery of fossils dating back more than a million years has called into question the traditional belief that the earth is a creation of only six or seven thousand years old, as recorded in the Bible. Besides that, several scientists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace had stated their theories on the evolution of humanity, contradicting Christian belief that human beings were created by an omnipotent God. These discoveries and theories, although rejected by many, nevertheless gained numerous followers, resulting in a change in the beliefs of a large segment of the population. This dying faith in the traditional beliefs of Christianity is what constitutes the main theme of the poem. The poem, being one of Arnold's most significant poems, has received several critical assessments, most of which are contradictory to each other. However, the recurring theme of melancholy that usually makes up most of his works is undeniably evident in this poem as well. “There is… Arnold's well-known melancholy: the man of little faith in a world without faith, still hoping to maintain the spiritual dignity that the world without faith seems to deny him.” (Krierger 40). The poem is often read as a testimony to the changes in viewpoint and belief brought about by the New Science of the mid-nineteenth century. Charles Lylell's discovery of fossils dating back more than a million years has called into question the traditional belief that the earth is a creation of only six or seven thousand years old, as recorded in the Bible. In addition to this, several scientists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace had stated their theories on the evolution of humanity, contradicting the Christian belief that human beings were created by an omnipotent God. These discoveries and theories, although rejected by many, nevertheless gained numerous followers, resulting in a change in the beliefs of a large segment of the population. This dying faith in the traditional beliefs of Christianity is what constitutes the main theme of the poem Dover Beach. Arnold in this poem uses the naturalistic setting of Dover beach to metaphorically express this "dying faith" and the desperation it carries with it in his heart, as well as how this new light has darkened his outlook on life. Arnold appears to have been immensely affected by the "receding roar" (Arnold 25) of the "Sea of ​​Faith" (Arnold 21), causing him eternal sadness, which can be seen in his description of his outlook on life in the final stanza. As mentioned previously, from beginning to end one can detect a gradual change in the setting and narrative tone: first, we start with a simple and serene visual imagery of a naturalistic setting without any sign of an underlying theme, we move on to a more exaggerated and complicated use of auditory imagery, without any change in setting and subject matter, finally ending with a melancholy and hopeless emotional outpouring from the poet. This style is often adopted by Arnold in his other works as well: "In this poem, however, the development from the natural scene to the human levels to which it opens is handled much more successfully than elsewhere in his works." (Krieger 41). Despite the change of setting, these stanzas are not divided into different sections without any connection; each stanza, from the first to the last, is significantly connected. Throughout the poem, the poet uses the natural environment of the English Channel mentioned in the first stanza, even when the tone changes, the same topic is still used as a metaphor to introduce us to the "dying faith" that the.