Dover Beach

Dover Beach is a poem by Matthew Arnold, published in 1867, widely considered one of the most important poems of the Victorian era.

Set on the English coast overlooking the Strait of Dover, the poem uses the rhythmic withdrawing of the sea as a metaphor for the retreat of religious faith in the modern world: The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full.

It ends with a famous plea for human connection amid uncertainty: Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!

The poem's melancholic meditation on doubt and disillusionment made it a touchstone for later writers, notably in the title of Anthony Hecht's bitter response poem "The Dover Bitch."