Dover Beach How can life be so wonderful, but at times seem so unbearable? This is a question that Matthew Arnold may have asked himself, while writing "Dover Beach." The poem, one of Arnolds best works, is about a beach that is truly beautiful, but holds much deeper meaning than what meets the eye. Matthew Arnold presents a very real theme of love and splendor in his poem. He creates a scene of beauty among …showed first 75 words of 961 total…

…showed last 75 words of 961 total…have. In these last nine lines, the land, which he thought was so beautiful and new, is actually nothing - "neither joy, nor love, nor light". "We are here though as on a darkling plain, swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash at night". In reality, Arnold is expressing that nothing is certain, because where there is light there is dark and where there is happiness there is sadness(Riede).