Changed
Changed - meaning Summary
Change Seen, Self Changed
Longfellow’s poem contrasts an outwardly unchanged landscape with the speaker’s inward sense of alteration. The countryside, sea, and sun remain familiar, yet people and memories have shifted, making once-comforting scenes feel foreign. The poem registers the melancholy of aging or emotional distance: it questions whether places have changed or the observer’s perceptions and relationships have, emphasizing loss and estrangement over literal transformation.
Read Complete AnalysesFrom the outskirts of the town, Where of old the mile-stone stood, Now a stranger, looking down I behold the shadowy crown Of the dark and haunted wood. Is it changed, or am I changed? Ah! the oaks are fresh and green, But the friends with whom I ranged Through their thickets are estranged By the years that intervene. Bright as ever flows the sea, Bright as ever shines the sun, But alas! they seem to me Not the sun that used to be, Not the tides that used to run.
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