Dover Beach | Matthew Arnold | Christian Poetry | Faith, Doubt, Love, Loss | Love Revealed By Jesus

Introduction to Dover Beach from a Christian Perspective

Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’, written in the mid-19th century, reflects religious uncertainty of the Victorian era. The poem captures the emotional and spiritual turmoil of a time when traditional Christian beliefs were being questioned by the rise of scientific discoveries and changing social attitudes. Arnold’s work has been read as a lament for the loss of faith; it is a valuable text for exploring Christian response to modernity.

The poem opens with a description of the English coastline, where the sea is calm, and the night air is still. This peaceful scene sets the stage for a deeper meditation on the nature of the world. As the speaker listens to the sound of the waves, he is reminded of an ‘eternal note of sadness’ that echoes through history. This sadness is not just a personal feeling but is connected to a broader sense of loss such as permeates the human condition.

Arnold uses the metaphor of the ‘Sea of Faith’ to express this loss. He describes how faith once ‘lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled’ around the earth, suggesting a time when religious belief was strong and provided a sense of security and meaning. However, the sea is now retreating, leaving the world exposed and vulnerable. This image of the receding sea suggests that faith, which once unified and supported humanity, is diminishing, leaving behind a sense of emptiness and uncertainty.

The metaphor of the ‘Sea of Faith’ is central to understanding the Christian perspective in ‘Dover Beach’. For many readers, this image represents the decline of Christian belief in the face of scientific advancements and the questioning of traditional religious doctrines. The poem does not explicitly mention Christianity, but evokes a time when Christian faith was dominant in shaping people’s understanding of the world.

Critics have often focused on this aspect of the poem. Lionel Trilling observed that Arnold ‘felt acutely the fragility of the human soul when unsupported by a confident religious faith’. This sense of fragility is evident in the poem’s tone, which shifts from calm description of the sea to a more sombre reflection on the state of the world. The retreat of the ‘Sea of Faith’ leaves the speaker facing a world that appears less certain and more chaotic.

‘Dover Beach’ emphasizes contrast between the past, when faith was strong, and the present, where doubt and uncertainty prevail. The poem does not offer a clear resolution to this tension but instead presents a world where faith is no longer a given. The speaker’s call for love and fidelity in the face of a bleak and uncertain world can be seen as a response to the loss of faith, suggesting that human relationships may provide some solace in a world where traditional beliefs are in decline.

Arnold’s poem can be seen as a reflection on the challenges faced by Christianity in a modern world. The ‘eternal note of sadness’ that the speaker hears is a reminder of enduring human need for meaning and purpose, which faith once provided. The poem’s imagery of the receding sea captures the sense of loss and disorientation that many people felt as they grappled with implications of a world where faith was no longer as central as it once was.

Dover Beach | Matthew Arnold | Christian Poetry | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.