Analysis on Mood of “Dover Beach” "Dover Beach" is a melancholic poem. Matthew Arnold, the author, uses the means of 'pathetic fallacy', when he attributes or rather projects the human feeling of sadness onto an inanimate object like the sea. At the same time he creates a feeling of 'pathos'. The reader can feel sympathy for the suffering lyrical self, who suffers under the existing conditions. “Dover Beach” leads up to an eventual climax with “…showed first 75 words of 295 total…

…showed last 75 words of 295 total…view of the world he is living in. “Dover Beach” begins with a very peaceful serenity, and then leads up to a horrible ending stating how painful life and love really are. Personifying the sea, Arnold uses human sadness to portray his depressing life. He accentuates a world with a series of denials, which doesn’t contain any basic human values. They have all disappeared along with the light and religion, leaving humanity in darkness.