Matthew Arnold initially published one of his most famous poems, "Dover Beach," in a collection of poems titled New Poems during the year 1867. The date here is significant because Arnold is believed to have written the poem back in the early 1850s (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). A nearly twenty-year gap separates the supposed first draft to its first edition publication. "Dover Beach" considers how faith might return in an altered form after the influence of new scientific discoveries, and it stands to reason that the political and religious climates in London during the late 1860s better fit the thematic subject of Arnold's poem than the early 1850s.