Dover Beach [UK] What does Arnold mean by small stones thrown on the beach?

The small stones thrown on the beach of Dover represent people's yearning for beautiful love. So Yuanyang Stone is also called "Gemini Stone". Dover Beach is matthew arnold's most famous philosophical poem. This poem records the thoughts of the poet and his new wife on their honeymoon in Dover Beach. The poet stood at the window, looking at the night view of the quiet beach in Wang Chen, calling on his lover to enjoy the intoxicating moonlight with him. However, the poet did not directly describe the beautiful seascape, but listened to the roar of the waves crashing on the cliffs on the shore, which was related to the elegy in antigone, a work by Sophocles, an ancient Greek tragic writer. Finally, the poet remembered a chaotic midnight battle in history, in which Athens soldiers killed many enemies and friends. The past time foreshadowed the tragic fate of mankind for Arnold, who saw the mutual suspicion and disputes between people. He can only avoid these ominous omens by paying attention to the gentleness of the moment-the calm sea, the sweet sea breeze and the lover around him. However, the end of the poem clearly tells readers that this dreamland is just an illusion. In the poem, Arnold connects the past and the present with imagination, and expresses his thoughts through the mixture of present experience and memory: the ebb of tides in nature is equivalent to the loss of human belief. The solution is to replace the affection between man and God with the loyal love between friends, so the poet calls him a lover and his soul mate. Before Dover Beach, no writer could effectively express this feeling. Dover Beach is a masterpiece of English poetry. In order to transform sound and scenery into philosophical thinking, the poet used three kinds of analogies and metaphors with extended meanings. The first is to link the noise of the ebb and flow of the tide with Sophocles' point of view: if human nature is the sea, the ebb wave is a despicable quality. Then the poet created a metaphor that is more suitable for life: if the sea represents the religious belief of human beings, then the coast is a world without faith, expanding with the rise and fall of the tide. Finally, Arnold skillfully transitioned to another metaphor: the sea of faith encircles the global coast like a ribbon and becomes a dreamland. Religious belief has become a dream, and the two relative elements, the ocean and the earth, have merged at the edge of their intersection. Arnold's three analogies gradually developed in meaning, just like the poet's flowing thoughts. With a cynical mood, the poet expressed his inner sadness and wrote about the spiritual loneliness experienced by people who just entered modern society.