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Overview
“Dover Beach” is a lyric poem by the English poet and critic Matthew Arnold
. Though not published until 1867, Arnold likely wrote the poem in 1851, soon after his marriage to Frances Lucy. Arnold and his wife honeymooned at the Strait of Dover, a narrow section of the English Channel with a distant view of the French city of Calais. This is the view that inspired “Dover Beach,” which features a speaker having an existential crisis. Arnold may be better remembered today for his cultural criticism than for his poetry, but “Dover Beach” continues to be read and admired.Read a summary & analysis, an analysis of the speaker, and explanations of important quotes from “Dover Beach.”
