"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold: Location

          In Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach," location plays a large role in the overall meaning of the work.  The speaker discusses three different seas and each are in a different place but have one common bond.  The seas are the English Channel, the Aegean, and the Sea of Faith.  The common bond they all share is they produce the sound of the "eternal note of sadness," (Arnold, 892).  The speaker describes them as looking nice but they have a melancholy tone to the sound they make.  He relates this to the Sea of Faith saying that as faith dwindles there is more sadness and that the Sea of Faith is very sad.  The speaker uses these locations to better describe the sadness he feels.  At the end of the poem the speaker blames this sadness and lack of faith on the world.  He even proclaims to his love that they only have each other and must hold on to that.  This contributes to the meaning of the poem as a whole.