Analysis of “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” & “Nature”

Longfellow’s Eloquent Approach to Death: Analysis of Death in Two Poems Death is an uneasy topic to talk about and causes nearly everyone to have negative feelings for it. Although it is inevitable and also an important part of life, people try to avoid the topic altogether because it gives them discomfort. Because it is such an important subject, one must break the awkward silence and address the topic. Longfellow makes death seem like a natural thing which must come to all living things through his rich comparisons to nature and ordinary life.In â€Å"The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls† he compares the continuous rising and falling of tides to a nameless traveler, and in his poem, â€Å"Nature† he compares nature and humans as the relationship between a strict mother and her child. In Longfellow's poem, â€Å"The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls† he fluently articulates the differences between tides and a nameless traveler. Symbolically, the tides represent the co ntinuous cycle of life and the traveler just represents every single human being in the world.The emphasis on â€Å"The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls† at the end of each stanza shows that no matter what happens in an individual's life, life in general and the tides are just going to go on without a single care about the world (5). Additionally, Longfellow gives the traveler no descriptive identity and only labels him as â€Å"The Traveler† (4). Because of the word choice, it further shows how unimportant a single person is in the grand scheme of things. Furthermore, there is a distinctive contrasting detail throughout the poem.In many places, Longfellow incorporates light and dark settings into the poem. For example, when darkness settles, the â€Å"sea in the darkness†¦ Efface the footprints in the sands† (7-9). The footprints that were in the sand were left by the traveler, and by effectively removing them, it clearly shows that the travelers presence is for ever forgotten at the beach. Additionally because â€Å"[the traveler] nevermore returns†¦ to the shore†, it is impossible for him to retrace his journey and imprint his footsteps once again.In essence, the traveler is dead and the tide continues on its duty with disregard for the travelers absence. In contrast, Longfellow makes the connection between life and light. For example, after the tide erases the travelers footsteps, â€Å"The morning breaks;the steed in their stalls Stamp and neigh as the hostler calls† (11-12). Because it is morning again, life ensues and the daily activities of another nameless human being starts the cycle all over again since day and night alternate.Basically, Longfellow uses the seemingly peaceful comparison between the tide and traveler to emphasize that death is inevitable and that one must accept it because the world will not stop rotating just because of a death of a human. The second poem is called â€Å"Nature† and it in volves the role play of death and life as a strict mother and her child. The poem’s comparison sheds light on the harsh reality that all humans will inevitably meet their end someday. Symbolically, the mother represents mother nature and the child is any type of living thing.The poem starts off by stating the mother is trying to get her child to go to sleep with a certain degree of difficulty. The child is â€Å"half willing, half reluctant to be led† and is unwilling to â€Å"leave his broken playthings on the floor† (3-4). From these two lines of the poem, it is evident that the child is conflicted because it is unsure whether to stay with his materialistic comforts or to be led by his mother to go to sleep which is a strange experience to him. This can be compared to how humans view death as a strange and unknown thing.Being human, it is understandable that they are hesitant to even consider the possibility of death. Additionally, Longfellow describes the chi ld's playthings as â€Å"broken† which brings out the fact that they are old and damaged, which can be compared to someone who is on the verge of death (4). From this, the conclusion can be drawn that the child is unsure whether to follow his mother into an unknown world or to stay with what has given him comfort throughout his life. In addition, Longfellow also states that this new experience may not give the child as much pleasure as his materialistic things.Realistically, Longfellow is trying to emphasize that death is a very controversial topic and it is natural for humans to be weary and worried about it. In the third stanza, Longfellow states that nature deals with the worried feelings towards death by taking away â€Å"our playthings one by one, and by the hand Leads us to rest so gently† (10-11). From these two lines, Longfellow states that in order for humans to be convinced to take the risk of leaving their materialistic comforts, mother nature must gradually take them away.Because humans lose what they love so gradually, they â€Å"go Scarce knowing if (they) wish to go or stay† in bed (11-12). By doing this, mother nature effectively decreases the amount of animosity and tension between humans and death by allowing humans to enjoy themselves while they still can. However, all good things must come to an end and eventually, the older the human, the weaker he gets. With the added weakness and lack of things he can do, since mother nature has taken them away, death may seem as a beneficial solution in comparison to one's current life.Through this poem, Longfellow, with the use of personification, successfully changes societies outlook on death from a scary, sudden process into one that is gradual and has a touch of motherly tenderness. Being a renowned writer, Longfellow has the ability to craft his words to best capture the meaning of his idea. In this case, he gives the reader another outlook on a very scary topic, death. Throug h the use of his highly descriptive comparisons between nature and ordinary life, he is able to make death seem like a natural stage of human life and that humans should not think about it so much because mother nature will take care of it.