Analysis Of Tide Rises The Tide Falls By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The talented Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has written profound works of poetry including “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”, “A Psalm of Life”, “The Cross of Snow”. He was a fireside poet who wrote in the time period of Romanticism. This was a time period in which the writer's feeling were deeply portrayed in their writing. Longfellow uses his horrific past experiences as a guide to form his writing. He uses symbolism to portray his views on life and how it should be lived.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born February 27, 1807 in Portland, Maine. He grew up with a good life, his father was a lawyer and Longfellow was destined to become one as well. He began going to school when he was 3 years old. After his years of schooling, he attended Bowdoin College in the fall of 1822. He took a trip to Europe after college and then began courting Mary Potter. They got married in September 1831, and they settled down in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In October 1835, Potter had a miscarriage and she died of complications on November 29th, 1835. This tragedy caused him great sadness, and he left being a professor at Harvard and went back to Europe. In July, 1843,

He uses nature in this to show the constant motion of life. The repetition of “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” shows how life is ongoing and does not stop for anyone. Longfellow uses personification and refers to the waves as, “The little waves, with their soft, white hands, /Efface the footprints in the sands, (Longfellow)”. This brings a sense of comfort to the reader. The waves wipe away the footprints of the traveler, which shows how life wipes away all of your past and starts new each day. The different times of day in the poem represent the different times in life and how fast it goes. After the death of the traveler in this poem, the tide is still rising and falling. This symbolizes that after the tragedy of death, life still goes