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Life, Consciousness, and Existence
Matthew Arnold's strategy for "Dover Beach" is something like "go big or go home." He doesn't restrict himself to little issues, or a moment in time, or fleeting feelings. No, he deals with the Big Stuff, like History and Faith and the True Nature of the World. In just 37 lines he zooms out so far that he's looking out over all of human existence. Sure, the view he sees is pretty dark, but we think there's something exciting about how grand and philosophical this poem manages to be in such a small space.
The beauty of the language in "Dover Beach" works against its main premise, that life is fundamentally lightless and joyless. Even if the subject is grim, the poem itself emphasizes the fundamental hopefulness of existence. Take that, despair.
While the speaker condemns the world for its misery and absence of faith, he does not extend those conclusions to himself. In essence, he manages to separate himself from the rest of humanity.
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