"this distant northern sea...."See in text(Dover Beach)
The “distant northern sea” Arnold refers to is the North Sea, which lies between the United Kingdom, Northwestern Europe, and Scandinavia. The town of Dover is situated where the North Sea and the English channel connect. Arnold cites the North Sea and its distance from the Ægean in order to convey the universality of human suffering across both time and space.
The Ægean Sea lies between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. It is an embayment within the larger Mediterranean Sea. As Arnold suggests, Sophocles lived near the Ægean since his native Athens is situated on the sea. The Ægean is the setting for numerous Greek myths and stories, from the plays of Sophocles to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
