When was Dover Beach published?
A1855
B1872
C1867
D1880
Answer:
C. 1867
Read Explanation:
Dover Beach was published in 1867 as part of Matthew Arnold’s collection New Poems.
However, scholars believe that the poem was likely written in the early 1850s, possibly around 1851, during Arnold’s honeymoon with his wife, Frances Lucy Wightman, at Dover, a coastal town in England.
The poem reflects the Victorian crisis of faith, a period when religious beliefs were being challenged by scientific discoveries, such as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The imagery of the retreating tide in the poem serves as a powerful metaphor for the decline of religious faith in an age of increasing skepticism.