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Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Ebb Tide

The speaker of “Dover Beach” uses the oceanic tides to symbolize the human condition. It is important to note, however, that whereas the tides of the ocean rise and fall in a repeating cycle, the speaker focuses solely on the falling tide, also known as the ebb tide. It is this falling tide that he associates despairingly with the human condition. The poem opens at high tide, in the momentary stillness that settles in as the flood tide transitions to the ebb tide. The speaker’s opening lines register the tranquility of this ephemeral moment. But halfway through the first stanza, as the tide begins to fall, the sea grows increasingly agitated. The waves drag the pebbles along the beach, generating a noise that the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles once likened to “the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery” (lines 17–18). Just as the tide has begun to flow out at Dover Beach, the speaker reflects on how the metaphorical tide of religion has begun to ebb away in the social sphere. This metaphorical ebb tide conditions the speaker’s grave pessimism about the world at large, which he characterizes as “darkling plain,” where even the light is ebbing away.

Pebbles

The pebbles that get tossed up and down Dover Beach represent the uncontrollable and violent nature of human fate. Many of England’s beaches are covered in pebbles rather than sand. When waves wash over these beaches, the chaotic forces of fluid dynamics variously drag the pebbles further into the ocean or else “fling” (line 10) them further up the beach. Unable to withstand the enormous forces at work in the oceanic tides, the pebbles have no choice but to be trawled along and tossed about. The speaker sees in the pebbles’ lack of agency a reflection of humans’ inability to control their own fate. The speaker suggests this connection when he likens the “grating roar” of the pebbles being dragged along the beach to an “eternal note of sadness.” He underscores the point more explicitly later in the poem, when he laments the unpredictability of the world, which “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (lines 33–34).

The Sea of Faith

When the speaker mentions “The Sea of Faith” in line 21, he’s referencing a purely metaphorical body of water that symbolizes Christianity. More specifically, the Sea of Faith symbolizes the diminishing influence of Christianity. As the speaker notes, “The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full” (lines 21–22), meaning that Christianity had once enjoyed widespread influence. However, as the speaker’s mournful use of the past tense suggests, the Sea of Faith’s reserve of water is no longer as plentiful as it used to be. Just as the ebb tide has begun to lower the tide on Dover Beach, the water level in the Sea of Faith has begun to diminish. And in the symbolic language of the stanza, the diminishing reserves in the Sea of Faith really references the waning influence of religion in society. Although the speaker doesn’t explicitly address why religion is so important to him, the image of a draining lake offers a powerful suggestion. If a body of water eventually dries up, leaving it entirely empty, then it will lose its identity. The speaker feels a similar intimation of emptiness, and he worries that he will lose all sense of himself.

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