1. The Tide Rises The Tide Falls
STANZA 1 –What is the Rhyme Scheme?
The tide rises, the tide falls.
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

2. The Tide Rises The Tide Falls
STANZA 1 –What is the Rhyme Scheme?
The tide rises, the tide falls. A
The twilight darkens, the curfew calls; A
Along the sea sands damp and brown B
The traveler hastens toward the town, B
And the tide rises, the tide falls. A

3. Stanza 1 Analysis
There are places, as Longfellow would have been aware, where it is only possible to cross an inlet at low tide.
First Stanza:
Traveler is hastening toward the town
To traveler, reason for the journey is:
Vitally important
Worth the risk of racing the tide to reach the other side.
He loses the race and the tide reaches the traveler before he is able to attain the important goal.

4. Stanza 2 Darkness settles on the roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
What words are repeated in the first two lines?
What effect does this have on the poem?
What type of figurative language is being used here?

5. Stanza 2 Darkness settles on the roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
*Creates a somber atmosphere
*Personification of a child’s hand
White is also the color of sea foam

6. Stanza 2 Analysis Second Stanza:
What does the footprints being washed away symbolize?

7. Stanza 2 Analysis Second Stanza:
What does the footprints being washed away symbolize?......You may be forgotten after death.

8. Stanza 2 Analysis THEMES: (1)Man pitting himself against nature
MAN LOSES
(2) Tide Rises and the Tide Falls
Nature will overcome everything man tries to do to overcome it
(3) Tide will keep rising and falling and the traveler will be forgotten.

9. Stanza 3 The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
What poetic device is being used in the first two lines?
What is being symbolized?

10. Stanza 3 Analysis The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Alliteration
Symbolizes that life does continue even if you are not around to see it.
The tide will continue to rise and fall just as life will continue on and people will die along the way.

11. What Longfellow is trying to tell us
Longfellow paints a very bleak picture
Whatever we do, time and tide will wash away the memory of ourselves and our actions!!

12. The Message:
The hostler, with calming influence and slow and steady approach will have more impact on life and history than the traveler.
The one who fights against time and the tide—and loses—will be forgotten long before the other who moves with the tide and accepts nature for what it is.
*hostler (one who takes care of horses/groomer)

13. The THEMES
The tide rising and falling, contrasts, or is just the opposite of man, in that it is a constant, like time.
Time marches on
This is nature
Man, has a time limit on earth
Man will die
Man can keep coming to the tide, for every day of his entire life.
Man will die, but the tide will continue to rise and fall, whether he is alive to see it, or not.
The tide if forever young, while man is forever older
Man has a time limit, while tide and time have none

14. More THEMES Theme of death
Using ocean as a symbol of life and town as a symbol of death
OVERALL PROGRESSION that the stanzas go through:
1st stanza—Actual death of the traveler
2nd stanza—What happens after death
3rd stanza—How life goes on, even if someone dies.

15. What is the tone??
Tone is accepting and calm…..What text evidence can you use to prove this??

16. What is the tone??
Tone is accepting and calm…..What text evidence can you use to prove this??
WORDS that relate to the ocean, which most people associate with serenity and tranquility
The author understands that he is going to die one day or another…..something that he cannot avoid!

17. General Message: General message about death
Author associates darkness with death, ocean with life, and light with heaven.
Once a person reaches death:
Legacy can be forgotten
Go to heaven or hell
Never return to life

18. Indirect Message: (INFER)
People should do all they can in life
*Once life is gone it will never come back.
Should be all they can be and do nothing to regret past actions.
Death in unavoidable, but that does not mean it must be feared.
Rising and falling of the tide:
**DEATH is constant and forever
** People cannot stop death from coming

19. Elements of Romanticism
Longfellow portrays death as
1. a fact of life
2. an inevitable occurrence to be accepted
3. not to be feared
Symbolic nature of tides suggest that death, like ocean, is continual, and forever
*Just as one cannot stop the tides of the ocean erasing their “footprints in the sand” , or rather their existence in the world, one cannot stop death from claiming his/her life.