A Critical Analysis of The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
by Lillian Bonar
Essay: A Critical Analysis of The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
Pages: 11
Rating: 3 stars
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We live only a fleeting moment in the time of the universe. Us, human beings, just come and go, while everything
around us generally stays the same. In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”, he
writes about a traveler, who comes and goes passed a shore where the tide slowly washes away his footsteps.
Even though this poem seems like just a simple piece of work about a man on vacation, it actually has a much
deeper meaning and conveys a larger message.
The poem starts off with a day nearing its end at twilight and the “traveler hastens toward the town”. The traveler
represents a human being going through life. We can be considered travelers since we just come and go with the
passing of time. The person here, leaving at twilight, represents the ending of a life as they move on to the next
part of the human life cycle. Then time passes and it is night and the sea, with its waves, “efface the footprints in
the sand”. The sea represents time, and as the waves slowing move in and out, erasing the footprints the traveler
left, it shows how a memory of a person who was once there is slowly washed away. The erasing itself is not harsh,
but gentle, like it is shown with the waves and their “soft, white hands”. And finally when morning comes, the town
life goes on, but the traveler will never again return to the shore. The average life in the area is portrayed by the
“steeds in their stalls”, and it describes how the day returns but not the traveler. Everything around, nature, stays
generally the same with the passing of time, but us humans, the traveler, will never be there again after a certain
amount of time.
As a person reads this poem, they feel somewhat lonely and sad. The traveler, although representing a...