What did Sophocles hear long ago in the Aegean Sea? ( MEG 102 ) ( MATTHEW ARNOLD )

In Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach," the speaker references the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles and suggests that he heard a similar sound to the one the speaker is currently hearing at Dover Beach. Specifically, the speaker says that Sophocles heard the "eternal note of sadness" in the Aegean Sea. This line is a reference to a fragment of Sophocles' lost play, "Ajax," in which the character Ajax says that he has heard the "eternal sound of the sea" and that it has brought him peace.

By referencing Sophocles and the sound of the sea, the speaker is suggesting that the sadness and uncertainty that he is feeling is not unique to his own time or place, but is a fundamental part of the human experience. Just as Sophocles heard the same sound centuries ago, the speaker is now hearing it at Dover Beach. This idea reinforces the poem's overall theme of the transience and fragility of human existence, and the sense of despair that can come from the realization that life is fleeting and uncertain.