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Literaryanalysis
Allison Rau
Dr. Sterling
ENGL 1302
19 June 2017
Literary Analysis on The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Henry Longfellow
extending from his many historical poetic masterpieces. The development of his works stems
from a simplistic view of emotional depth and possesses characteristic features such as his great
metrical skill to capture melancholic desolation that exists within life (Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow). Longfellows The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls embraces these characteristics
throughout the work by developing a theme that expands upon the natural inevitability of life and
deaths endless cycle. Longfellows poem The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls makes effective use
of foreshadowing to foretell how everything that lives must accept the conception of life and
Longfellow immediately sets the tone when the poem foretells a shroud of darkness and a
foreboding call to an end. The beginning of the poem emphasizes Longfellows personal
perspective of life and death as he is shown to portray the notion of sadness and desolation
throughout many of his works (Woodward). The Tide Rises, The Tides Falls specifically
focuses the reality of existing under polar cycles of life and death. Through close observation,
Longfellow reflects this idea when he compares the rising and falling of waves to the light and
the dark realities of death. In the beginning of Longfellows poem, the Tide Rises, the tide falls
/ The twilight darkens, the curlew calls (lines 1-2) portrays the shifting of moving waves as a
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representation of how all living things constantly rotate in a harmonious succession between the
living and the passing. The waves rising imply how all living things that grow, must then fall to
an end. The author then depicts the impression of darkness and a curlews call to forebode the
eventual inevitability of death. Longfellow illustrates a birds eerie call to foreshadow how
darkness, or death, live amongst all creatures of mankind. The twilight darkens is implied to be
the shroud of darkness that engulfs the light as the day ends. The author successfully alludes to
the concept of death by bestowing the readers a foreboding sense of danger provided in this
context. He utilizes the concept of darkness throughout the poem to further anticipate and discern
Longfellow continues to portray the image of darkness to further foretell how death is an
unavoidable conclusion to all human life. The author describes darkness to be an effective
recurring trope that allows the readers to envision something negative, sad, or foreboding that
may occur within his works of literature (Woodward). In this case, Longfellow embeds
descriptive significance when he illustrates how Darkness settles on roofs and walls, / But the
sea, the sea in darkness calls (lines 6-7). The settling of roofs and walls foreshadows how
darkness, or death, begins to invade the comfort of home, further contrasting life as the light
darkness lurks. The author reverts to the sea as a source of life to contrast the invasion of
darkness that threatens, alternatively the eventual end of creation. Longfellow employs the word
call a second time to suggest that the sea is calling for the darkness to cast its shadow over the
water. This alludes to life calling for an eclipse of death and its power to inevitably end life. As
portrayed within The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, Longfellow illustrates darkness to emphasize
a negative connotation to heavily imply the theme of death. He applies the concept of the sea and
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the menacing darkness as foreshadowing towards life and deaths sequence of events.
Longfellow's The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls emphasizes the meaning of eternal life
and death when he reassures the readers that natures creation will continue to exist after deaths
embrace. In contrast to Longfellows pessimistic perspectives of reality and life, the author
embraces an optimistic future that is also widely recognized throughout his works (Williams). He
suggests that life will continue to exist in an eternal cycle equivalent to the eternal cycle of death.
Longfellow expresses this idea towards the end of The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls when he
specifies how natures life among creatures and humans will continue to exist as the day returns.
This is shown when the author speaks of The morning breaks; the steed in their stalls, / Stamp
high and neigh; the holster calls as the day returns, / And the tide rises, the tide falls
(Longfellow lines 12-14). In contrast to death portrayed in the beginning of the work,
Longfellow finishes his poem by foreshadowing a comforting conclusion that life will also
discover means of inevitability. Despite death partaking in individual lives, life as a whole will
continue to exist. As indicated by the lines of the poem, the morning breaking suggests that the
dawn of a new day is beginning. Longfellow emphasizes the existence of life to continue through
the neighing of horses and the hollering of men. He then reverts back to the tide rising and
falling to portray how life, death, and loss will never change as it is a part of life. Longfellow
emphasizes this to foreshadow, from a positive point of view, that life will continue to exist
eternally, but will remain equally bounded alongside the deaths eternal grasp.
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Henry Longfellows The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls utilizes the literary device of
foreshadowing to describe how life exists in a harmonious balance between the cycle of life and
death. The poem obscures the boundary of how all living creatures may come to accept that the
process is inevitable in itself. By applying the theme of death, The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
vividly expresses how the author foretells the cycles many positive and negative characteristics,
Works Cited
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls. Poetry Foundation, Poetry
Williams, Cecil. Image and Actuality. Literature Resource Center, Gale Cengage Learning, 15
Nov. 2008,
go.galegroup.com.lscsproxy.lonestar.edu/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T001&resultListType=R
ESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchFormtPosition
web.a.ebscohost.com.lscsproxy.lonestar.edu/lrc/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=9436fa5c-0bd0-
4728-9392-14fb265392b0%40sessionmgr4009&hid=4109&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlw