HechtÆs The Dover Beach and ArnoldÆs Dover Beach employ a variety of elements of poetry to illustrate the tone of the respective speakers. From alliteration to allusion, both poets use elements of poetry to add impact and meaning to their respective speakerÆs attitude toward their subject. In Dover Beach, ArnoldÆs speaker is melancholy and timid, his hopes of finding genuine love as indecisive and eroding as the wave tossed ôpebblesö that ôbegin and ceaseö with ôtremulous cadence slowö and bring with them the ôeternal note of sadnessö (Arnold 1). In HechtÆs The Dover Bitch, ArnoldÆs speaker is mocked to a certain degree for his attitude and mood in Dover Beach. This is achieved by providing us with the perspective of the beloved in ArnoldÆs poem, one which is not thrilled with the melancholia of the speakerÆs observations in Dover Beach, ôTo have been brought / All the way down from London, and then be addressed / As sort of a mournful cosmic last resort / Is really tough on a girlö (Hecht 1). In both poems, the poets use a variety of elements of poetry to achieve the distinction in tone, attitude, and mood between the respective speakers.
The structure of ArnoldÆs poem is significant in underscoring the melancholy and ambivalent tone and attitude of the speaker. The poem is a piecemeal patchwork of partial sonnets. According to Touche, ôThe first two sections each consist of 14 lines that suggest but do not achieve strict sonnet form, and except for a short opening line, the last section emulates the octave of a sonnet, but closes with a single, climactic line instead of a sestetùas though the final five lines had been erodedö (1). This structure is very important for highlighting the attitude and tone of the speaker. Like the structure, his belief in love has been eroded. He is melancholy that true love is often incomplete and without resolution, much lik
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