Dover Beach

Dover Beach
• Poem starts with a sensation of calm and tranquility but over the next stanzas it becomes increasingly pessimistic

• "cliffs of England" protection and a recognizablesymbol of England that is natural, not man-made. They are old and have not changed for thousands of years

• Sea and moon also symbols of eternity. They are always changing but always the same.• "moon-blanched" first idea that something might be wrong. Blanched suggests the paleness of death.

• "grating" a harsh unpleasant sound

• "draw back … again begin" suggests acycle. That nothing is ever gained. The word "fling" suggests that the pebbles (humanity) are at the mercy of the waves (history, human nature) and can never break free

• "eternal note ofsadness" suggests that it has been going on forever and will continue forever and "sadness" shows the move towards pessimism

• Greeks were the centre of civilization for the ancient world, whichsuggests that this sadness has always been there. "distant northern sea" show how far it has travelled – to what was for a long time the edge of the know world.

• "turbid ebb and flow of humanmisery" misery is a stronger word than sadness, ebb and flow relates back to the movement of the tides and that nothing ever changes, turbid suggests all the bad or negative aspects of human nature.• "Sea of Faith" the belief in God and absolute faith in the Bible that Darwin destroyed

• "bright" suggests how faith helped people while "girdled" suggests that they were surrounded,clothed and protected by their faith.

• "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating" "retreating" suggests that faith has been beaten and relates to the later imagery of armies, "melancholy"repeats the idea of sadness, that loss of faith leads to unhappiness, "roar" suggests that it is painful

• "night-wind" and "drear" suggest metaphorical darkness now that the light of faith has...