"Dover Beach"

By Matthew Arnold

the text

Probably written 1851.

Published in The Crayon, 1855.

Ask yourself the following questions as you read:

• Who is the speaker of the poem?
• Is there a listener? If so, who is it?
• what is the situation or setting?
• how would you characterize the central concern of the poem?
• what is the role of faith?
• what is the role of love?
• what is the relationship between public and private life in the poem?
• what is the relationship between landscape and the speaker?
• what is the effect of the allusion to Sophocles?
• how do the meter and rhyme of the poem work?
• can you see any connection between what is being said and the way it is being said?