Sunday Surf Poem: Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

I couldn’t find a solid surf-specific poem for this week, so I went with a classic of the sea instead: “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold.

Matthew Arnold was one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian era, and he wrote this piece in the mid-1800s. Obviously, he wasn’t a surfer — but the emotional undercurrent of this poem? We can totally get behind it. Especially the sense of uncertainty and instability.

He wrote it while standing by a window in Dover, a coastal town in England, looking out toward France across the English Channel. The waves, the moonlight, the shifting tide — they become a metaphor for something deeper: the fading of faith, the noise of modern life, and the longing for connection.

Total side note, but kind of a cool one: “Dover Beach” makes a cameo in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In one of the book’s most poignant scenes, protagonist Guy Montag reads the poem aloud to his wife and her emotionally fried friends — and it completely undoes them. They burst into tears. I’ll give you a moment to grab some tissues.

Author: The Wipeout Weekly team