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Before we can discuss Matthew Arnold’s "Dover Beach", a brief biography of Arnold will help our understanding of the poem. Matthew Arnold had intentions of marrying Fancy Lucy Wightman, despite the fact that her father disapproved. Wightman’s father was vocal in his objections to the marriage, insisting the two end their romance and cancel their wedding plans (Furr 75). Arnold wrote "Dover Beach", drawing from his own experience as a man with a lost love. The beauty and tranquility contrasts with the under current of something lost. Arnold presents the sea as a changing symbol of calmness, sadness, and faith to express his emotions. In the beginning of "Dover Beach" Arnold describes a night in which the gleam of the moonlight shimmers across the bay.
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