We humans are cunning. Since the dawn of time immemorial, we have worked to make sense of an existence that, by and large, defies understanding. There have been some successes; science, philosophy, love and religion have all been forged and used in this struggle to occasionally offer the light of truth. The problem is that they all deal with the definitive, but in a world without absolutes there could only be one human convention capable of truly answering life's greatest questions: poetry. Teases aside, poetry is really better suited to addressing unknown issues because poems are inherently left open to interpretation. In simpler terms, Matthew Arnold's 18th century poem “Dover Beach” is about the unknown. The poem doesn't just reflect on that idea, no, it edifies the history of humanity with "questions that have no answers" and the great internal and external conflicts inherent within. Ultimately, the poem attempts to find peace in the perpetual tide of uncertainty, like waves on the shore, which only brings us more questions as we seek answers. The first stanza of the poem is very different in construction than the rest of the poem. poem and serves primarily to establish the reflective tone and set up the main metaphor: waves on a beach. With its title and first line, “The sea is calm tonight,” the poem immediately places the speaker on or near a beach overlooking the sea (ll. 1). The tide, the main symbol of the poem, comes into play only in the second line. This first introduction is a clue to the important role the tide plays in the poem, making it almost the main character. The next five lines are filled with vivid sensory images of the setting, including the visual: On the strait; or...... half of the paper......(ll. 35-37)The poem ends with a warning. The ever-darker plain is the world becoming ever harder to understand, any possible truth ever harder to see. If we choose to fight in that darkness, believing that we can see anything – be it false truths of science, religion, or even love, then it is the ignorant armies that fight in the darkness. The most powerful aspect, or trick, of “Dover Beach” darkness is that it doesn't tell the reader what to think. Opinions will be strong and varied, but certainty is nearly impossible. In this sense, the entire poem is a metaphor for embracing the unknown, finding peace in endless waves of doubt, and avoiding the temptation to strive for false truths. Ultimately, the poem leaves us with a single, ironic truism: the more we search for answers, the more questions we receive and, therefore, the less certainty we can have about anything..