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Henry wadsworth longfellow works
Henry wadsworth longfellow works
Henry wadsworth longfellow works
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Bryce Tretter
StraighterLine
Composition II
Illustration Essay
Friday, September 8, 2017
“The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth
Life is a mystery and demystifying its intricate nature is quite impossible. However, living life is an opportunity granted to us. Drawing from the poem, I could not help but wonder what happened to the persona to see that indeed life is a cycle. The choice of the title “the tide rises the tide falls” is a good illustration depicting that life is full of ups and downs. From this I have come to appreciate that there is time for everything. The theme of the poem is that life is a cycle. He likens life and the experiences to ocean tides. A person is usually born and celebrated by the world, we live and gather
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Much of the texts have a deeper meaning about death. Clearly, by the use of personification, the author presents an imaginary mysterious traveler who leaves the shoreline and leaves the life as a past memory. One can sense the sad mood on the note. However, even with the person leaving that life, the shore is still much alive while the soul lives in a spiritual sense in another wild though in a definite natural sense. Therefore, it is ultimately a sad reality of what life awaits us in the end but the envisaged life as a cycle; the poem offers hope to humanity that we can still overcome challenges and we are only required to accept the realities and accept there is time for everything just as the tide rises and tide falls at their own moment.
“The Tide Rises the Tide Falls” written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1880 illustrates the nature of circles of life which keeps recurring and helps us to learn that time will never stop to give you an opportunity or make an experience last longer despite what we are going through. The theme of the poem is adequately communicated by the poet as he explicitly uses the use of alliteration, imagery and
Published in 1944, the poem itself is an elegy, addressing the melancholy and sorrow of wartime death, as indicated by the title ‘Beach Burial’. This title gives clear meaning to the sombre nature of the work, and the enigmatic nature of it holds the attention of the audience. The entirety of the poem is strewn with poetic devices, such as personification of dead sailors as “…they sway and wander in the waters far under”, the words inscribed on their crosses being choked, and the “sob and clubbing of the gunfire” (Slessor). Alliteration is used to great effect in lines such as that describing the soldiers being “bur[ied]…in burrows” and simile in the likening of the epitaph of each seaman to the blue of drowned men’s lips and onomatopoeia is shown in the “purple drips” (Slessor). The predominant mood of the work is ephemeral, with various references to the transient nature of humanity. The ethereal adjectives used to describe and characterise objects within the poem allow a more abstract interpretation of what would normally be concrete in meaning. The rhythm of this piece is markedly similar to the prevalent concept of tidal ebb and flow, with lines falling into an ABCB rhyme scheme and concepts
In Longfellow’s poem, The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls, Longfellow states “The little waves, with their soft white hands, / Efface the footprints in the sands.” By personifying the waves in the ocean, longfellow reveals the truth that all humans eventually die and their mark on the world is erased, like the waves wash away the footprints. In this imaginative way, Longfellow shows how no one lasts forever. Multiple times in other parts of the poem, Longfellow writes “And the tide rises, the tide falls.” Longfellow is expressing that the ocean is continuous, regardless of what happens. After losing his second wife, Longfellow was very depressed, and in this poem he is accepting that life goes on after someone dies. Using his imagination, Longfellow states the truth of the inevitability of death and the fact that life does not stop in the event of
Millay is associating death with happiness. This unlikely comparison allows the reader to become relaxed about the hardships the author was facing in the earlier passages of the poem. As the earth gave way and Millay sank softly and perfectly six feet under the ground, the reader celebrates as if a runner was finally crossing the finish line. Comparing death to a successful situation is an unusual way of looking at the end of life. Yet, this view of death is a positive outlook and is quite wonderful as opposed to other literary views of death such as "death: the gatekeeper of hell who has conquered the Earth." Millay makes the reader believe that the sinking earth is more of a pair of open hands waiting to hold the weary soul of man. Death is a chance of catching up on that sleep that you never quite caught up on. Another image that Millay gives the reader is that of a mother embracing her child. Mother Earth welcomes home her tired child and allows him to rest his head upon her soft breast. She runs her hands through his hair and lays them on his brow as to cool him off. She whispers her tired child to sleep through the sweet and friendly sound of rain.
Time is equated with constant decay throughout the entire poem, which is primarily shown in the speaker’s comparison of the concept of eternity to a desert. Love, and other concepts felt in life, are subject to this negative force of deconstruction over time, and are vanquished in death; this idea can be seen in the witty commentary at the end of the second stanza, “the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace”
One must look at this poem and imagine what is like to live thru this experience of becoming so tired of expecting to die everyday on the battlefield, that one starts to welcome it in order to escape the anticipation. The effects of living day in and day out in such a manner creates a person who either has lost the fear of death or has become so frighten of how they once lived the compensate for it later by living a guarded life. The one who loses the fear for death ends up with this way of living in which they only feel alive when faced with death. The person in this poem is one who has lost their fear of death, and now thrives off coming close to it he expresses it when he states “Here is the adrenaline rush you crave, that inexorable flight, that insane puncture” (LL.6-7). What happens to this persona when he leaves the battlefield? He pushes the limit trying to come close to death to feel alive; until they push
In the first instance, death is portrayed as a “bear” (2) that reaches out seasonally. This is then followed by a man whom “ comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse / / to buy me…” This ever-changing persona that encapsulates death brings forth a curiosity about death and its presence in the living world. In the second stanza, “measles-pox” (6) is an illness used to portray death’s existence in a distinctive embodiment. This uncertainty creates the illusion of warmth and welcomenesss and is further demonstrated through the reproduction of death as an eminent figure. Further inspection allows the reader to understand death as a swift encounter. The quick imagery brought forth by words such as “snaps” and “shut” provoke a sense of startle in which the audience may dispel any idea of expectedness in death’s coming. This essential idea of apparent arrival transitions to a slower, foreseeable fate where one can imagine the enduring pain experienced “an iceberg between shoulder blades” (line 8). This shift characterizes the constant adaptation in appearance that death acquires. Moreover, the idea of warmth radiating from death’s presence reemerges with the introduction to a “cottage of darkness” (line 10), which to some may bring about a feeling of pleasantry and comfort. It is important to note that line 10 was the sole occurrence of a rhetorical question that the speaker
Relief,” Millay used a similar form of imagery to describe the rain that resulted in the remembrance of the persona’s love: “…I miss him in the weeping of the rain…” (Millay, 3). This description of the rain not only helped better visualize the rain itself, but also emphasized the sorrowful and desolate undertone of the poem. Another exemplification of visual imagery utilized in Millay’s poem was used to illustrate the tides: “…I want him at the shrinking of the tide…” (Millay, 4). The retreating of the tides was easily concei...
Overall, dwell on this process of changing throughout the poem, it can be understood that the poet is demonstrating a particular attitude towards life. Everyone declines and dies eventually, but it would be better to embrace an optimistic, opened mind than a pessimistic, giving-up attitude; face the approach of death unflinchingly, calmly.
The poem seems to get faster and faster as life goes through its course. In
These three metaphors exemplify beauty, but also an end to nature and life. Death is slowly creeping up to him and taking over his life as realized in this comparison of him to nature. The poem shows the need to seize the moment in life before death. The last couplet talks about the topic of love and the power of it. Love lasts through the struggles in life, and the changes of seasons. Love of life keeps us from realizing that an end will eventually come. “This thou perciev’st, which makes thy love more strong.” Encompasses the idea that although everything comes to an end, love still fuels everything within a person. He realizes everything will come to an end and death is inevitable but the passion is still
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”. Elements of Literature: Fifth Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2008. 196. Print.
Matthew Arnold begins his poem by describing a calm, beautiful scene. Dover Beach is lying "fair" in the moonlight. It is high tide and he sees the coast of France and "the cliffs of England... / Gleaming and vast, out in the tranquil bay." All seems lovely and quiet. According to Baum's research on the date and circumstances of the poem, Arnold is probably speaking to his new bride (86) as he says, "Come to the window, sweet is the night-air." But gradually the reader senses a shifting of mood and tone. Now he describes the "line of spray... / Where the sea meets" the land as "moon-blanched." And the tide, tossing pebbles as it comes, is a "grating roar" with a "tremulous cadence slow" that "bring[s] / The eternal note of sadness in." This melancholy mood grows deeper as he thinks of man's long span of history-- "The turbid ebb and flow / of human misery."
In the second stanza, Sexton drives from the funeral to the Cape to “cultivate” herself or deal with her grief. She describes the images she sees on the cape such as the sun shining from the sky and uses a simile to describe the sea that “swings in like an iron gate”. The scenery, unlike Sexton’s emotions, are very lively and happy and the usage of this imagery makes the reader understand that the world was still turning even through the speaker’s life had just stopped due to her loss (Johnson 3). The end of the second stanza concludes with “in another country people die”, which brings back the poem’s theme of death and returns the poem to a more dismal tone showing that she cannot escape death or her grief. In the third stanza, Sexton addresses a loved one who is with her. Despite the wind falling like stones from “white hearted water” or the grief hitting her, her loved one touches her and she realizes that unlike the dead, she is not
In “ A Psalm of Life” he expresses life should not be taken for granted and to live in the moment rather than in the poem “ The Tide Rises, the tide falls” he is accepting death that it will come soon and he will be ready for it.. For example, in the poem “ A Psalm of Life” he says “ Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!” he begins his poem with complaint that everyone keeps telling him that life has no purpose that it's meaningless and he’s tired of hearing that and he goes ahead and tells us that life has a purpose and that one should do everything possible to live live and enjoy life. In the other hand in the poem “The Tide Rises, the tide falls, he accepts the fact that life comes to an end but no one should force death that it will come when it’s the right time. For example, in the poem “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” he says “Darkness settles on roofs and walls, But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;” meaning that death has it’s own timing that it will come and you will experience darkness when it
In conclusion death should be celebrated because if life is a gift in which every day is a new day to accomplish new goals and conquer any obstacle death should be the end of a satisfy life that live pleasantly . The poem emphases that idea of taking death as a new chapter, in which we remember all the encounters we have had from childhood memories to new experience we had as we get older. In so many ways death comes as our birth starts expected in some point but unpredictable when the moment would come.