The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls - meaning Summary
Cyclical Nature of Life
Longfellow's short lyric contrasts the sea's perpetual rhythms with human transience. Repeated refrain The tide rises, the tide falls
marks natural cycles—day and night, tides—continuing indifferent to individual life. A traveler hurries and then fails to return, his footprints erased by waves, suggesting mortality and the erasure of human traces. The poem calmly accepts death as part of recurring natural order, emphasizing continuity over personal loss.
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. Darkness settles on 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. 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.
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