The following two poems “A Psalm of Life” and “ The Tide Rises, the tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s, both share a common theme of death. The main philosophical point of the poem “ A Psalm of Life”is to live life to the fullest rather than just allowing life to pass by. The main philosophical point of the poem “ The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” is that people come and go but and that the memories that they have left soon begin to disappear and forgotten over time. Although these two poems share the theme of death they both show a different way they see death and the mood. In the poem “ A Psalm of Life” he doesn’t really think of death instead he lives in the moment and the mood in the poem is encouraging and hopeful. Rather than in the poem “ The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” he is accepting the fact that you cannot fight death that it will happen sooner or later and the mood is more calming. …show more content…
In Longfellow’s poem “ A Psalm of Life” he shows his perspective as a young man in which at this time he had encountered a recent loss and uses his experience to send out an encouraging message. This message he sends out is to live live to the fullest and not to let it jsut passs by. Longfellow’s use a metaphor describe what is happening such as in stanza 1 lines 3-4 “ For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.” he is implying that the soul is dead if you don’t add meaning or do anything to live life to the fullest. In stanza 5 lines 17-18 “In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life,Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!” Longfellow uses imagery to give us a visual image that the world is nothing but a battlefield and that it's just a temporary stop for the soul. In Longfellow’s poem “ The tide Rises, the Tide Falls” he shows his perspective as a mature and experienced adult in which he has experience fatalities from people that were close to him. Longfellow is implying that their is life everywhere you look and that people come an go as well as the memories they have left soon begin to get washed up and forgotten. A significant imagery that is repeated in the poem and used as a metaphor is the phrase “The tide rises, the tide falls,” I believe that Longfellow’s use this to emphasize his main point. Longfellow is comparing the ups and downs life brings to the currents of an ocean's wave how they rise and fall he also giving us an idea of the cycle of life through this quote. The following quote from the poem “The little waves, with their soft, white hands ,Efface the footprints in the sands, And the tide rises, the tide falls.” Longfellow's uses imagery to give us a visual image of how the waves are erasing the marks left on the sand and just washing them up meaning that memories that people leave on others well soon be forgotten almost if they never happened. The main distinguishing differences between these two poems are there perspective on death as well as the mood of the poems.
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
does.
John M. Barry's Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, takes us back 70 years to a society that most of us would hardly recognize.
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
For example, one line, “Soon our pilgrimage will cease; Soon our happy hearts will quiver, with the melody of peace,” which is saying that one day we will die, and you can’t stop that. “Lay we every burden down; Grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and a crown,” also reveals that you should appreciate what we’ve had, and what was given to us. This song is telling you, in every line, that you can’t live forever, but appreciate what you have, while you
For example, Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” discusses the experiences of one man and how despite “A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,” (3293). This very line suggests that time and death as a result of time passing cannot subdue the eternity of experiences. Whitman even goes as far as to say “It avails not, time nor place - distance avails not, I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,” (3293). Emily Dickinson’s also manifests the theme of deaths limits. Dickinson writes: “Because I could not stop for Death - He kindly stopped for me,” (3368). These lines suggest that death itself waited (or rather had to wait) for a time when he could intervene this woman. Subsequently, this would mean that death must abide by time and therefore limited by time itself. “We slowly drove- He knew not haste” (3368), also provides support for this idea. This line of the poem infers that death is unaware of the concept of faster thus clearly through his unknowing is bounded or limited once again. Two of the most renowned poets in American literature are Dickinson and Whitman. Their styles are so hard to define yet so easy to understand. The all too familiar swift liquid that is Dickinson is a decent put side by side to Whitman’s hearty melancholy. That being the case, through combination one realizes that both Whitman and Dickinson share the common theme of death’s limits in their work. While Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson 's works seem to be quite different, they share common themes, namely death and religion. While their views may differ, there is a sense of commonality when reading their works side by side. Both poets are acclaimed American writers, offering up distinct voices and beliefs that echo still
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
The topic of death, an obvious similarity: That Emily Dickinson states in the title of these poems. Death is a very strong word, with meaning and the power to capture an audience. Emily Dickinson inserts slant rhyme and exact rhyme, like used in church hymns. There are several places where Dickinson inserts a slant rhyme in “Because I could not stop for Death.” For example, in the in the fourth stanza words chill and tulle again with third stanza she uses a slant rhyme between the words ring with sun “at recess- in the Ring...setting Sun.” Also, in the other poem “I heard a fly buzz – when I died” has several slant rhymes one of them is in the first stanza, room rhymes with storm “In the room…of storm” (lines 2-4) and exact thyme that is in lines 14 and 16 with words “me” and “see.” Personification is another similar...
The poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Death Be Not Proud" both deal with the subject of death. These poems seem to have contradictory messages about death, yet at the same time have similar attitudes toward it. "Death Be Not Proud" talks about how death really has no power over people, while "Do not go gentle into that good night" says that it is part of human nature to fight against death.
The two poems, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas and, “Because I Could Not Wait for Death”, by Emily Dickinson, we find two distinct treatments on the same theme, death. Although they both represent death, they also represent it as something other than death. Death brings about a variety of different feelings, because no two people feel the same way or believe the same thing. The fact that our faith is unknown makes the notion of death a common topic, as writers can make sense of their own feelings and emotions and in the process hope to make readers make sense of theirs too. Both Dickinson and Thomas are two well known and revered poets for their eloquent capture of these emotions. The poems both explore death and the
Predominantly the poem offers a sense of comfort and wisdom, against the fear and pain associated with death. Bryant shows readers not to agonize over dying, in fact, he writes, "When thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, and breathless darkness, and the narrow house, make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart -- go forth under the open sky, and list to Nature 's teachings." With this it eludes each person face their own death, without fright, to feel isolated and alone in death but to find peace in knowing that every person before had died and all those after will join in death (Krupat and Levine
Many people find it hard to imagine their death as there are so many questions to be answered-how will it happen, when, where and what comes next. The fact that our last days on Earth is unknown makes the topic of death a popular one for most poets who looks to seek out their own emotions. By them doing that it helps the reader make sense of their own emotions as well. In the two poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the poets are both capturing their emotion about death and the way that they accepted it. In Dickenson’s poem her feelings towards death are more passionate whereas in Dylan’s poem the feelings
The Theme of Death in Poetry Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson are two Modern American Poets who consistently wrote about the theme of death. While there are some comparisons between the two poets, when it comes to death as a theme, their writing styles were quite different. Robert Frost’s poem, “Home Burial,” and Emily Dickinson’s poems, “I felt a Funeral in my Brain,” and “I died for Beauty,” are three poems concerning death. While the theme is constant there are differences as well as similarities between the poets and their poems. The obvious comparison between the three poems is the theme of death.
Many, including I, have heard this statement a thousand times, “I have so much to do and so little time.” This statement explains what two poets were trying to say through their poems. In the poems, Death Be Not Proud by John Donne, and Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson, the power that death has over one’s life and the power that one has over death becomes a race for time. Both poems explained death in two different perspectives but both still showed the underlying current that death cannot be stopped. With the use of symbolizations and metaphors, both authors show the power of death.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Emily Dickinson were two very different poets of the same era. While Longfellow was a celebrated author in his time that became a celebrity and was critically acclaimed, Dickinson was unsociable and because women of that time could not be writers, was not published until after her death. These two writers are like night in day in their descriptions but wrote in a similar manner.The themes of Longfellow and Dickinson are two separate sides of the same coin, Longfellow’s poem The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls is a somber poem about thelimited existence of man. Dickinson’s poem Success is Counted Sweetest, is a poem about not being able to appreciate something until it is gone. The two poems are both set up in three stanzas, but use different elements, in Longfellow’s poem he repeats the phrase, “The tide rises, the tide falls,” throughout the poem, while in Dickinson's poem there is no repetition of a phrase.
Throughout Emily Dickinson’s poetry there is a reoccurring theme of death and immortality. The theme of death is further separated into two major categories including the curiosity Dickinson held of the process of dying and the feelings accompanied with it and the reaction to the death of a loved one. Two of Dickinson’s many poems that contain a theme of death include: “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” and “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.”
There are many different opinions on how a life should be lived, Henry Longfellow's poem, "A Psalm of Life" is a perfect example of that. There is emphasis on making tomorrow better than today and not conforming to the way everyone else lives. Longfellow's philosophy in this poem is to live for today, however, one should be conscious of the future and lead a life that is good and that will inspire others after we are gone. Longfellow has a distinct outlook on life, using a philosophical approach, "A Psalm of Life" is about life as a whole and how its meaning is to live each day as a new day, be original, and to leave something behind that inspires others.