"Ah, love, let us be true"
In "Dover Beach" I noticed a very distinct and marked progression from stanza to stanza. There are four stanzas in the poem and each of them have a distinct sentiment. This progression comes full circle from majestic, to human, to mournful, to wistful. The first stanza talks about the sea and uses it to describe how the author feels. The stanza uses words like: "full", "roar", "fling", "tremulous cadence", "eternal", "glimmering", and "vast".
The next stanza is very short, but very different from the rest. It uses people that actually lived and actual places such as Sophocles and the Aegean Sea to convey its message. These references give the stanza a very earthy, human feel. The next stanza is sad, and mournful. It recalls the "roar" of the ocean mentioned in the first stanza, but this time with a "naked", "melancholy", "withdrawing", twist. It suggests that something dearly loved is lost. The last stanza is optimistic. It realizes the loss of the previous stanza, but uses phrases like the one quoted above to turn the next corner. "So various, so beautiful, so new" is another phrase that shows the author is recuperating from the loss in the previous stanza.
Overall, I assumed the poem was about love gained, aged, lost, and renewed, corresponding with each of the progressive stanzas.
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