The Tides
The Tides - meaning Summary
Emotions as Tidal Return
Longfellow uses a shore scene to map an emotional cycle: witnessing the low tide, the speaker believes love, laughter, and inspiration have permanently ebbed. The sea’s renewed surge overturns that despair, restoring joy and vitality as if feelings rise again from a hidden deep. The poem presents renewal as inevitable and sudden, likening inner loss and recuperation to the natural, rhythmic movement of the tides.
Read Complete AnalysesI saw the long line of the vacant shore, The sea-weed and the shells upon the sand, And the brown rocks left bare on every hand, As if the ebbing tide would flow no more. Then heard I, more distinctly than before, The ocean breathe and its great breast expand, And hurrying came on the defenceless land The insurgent waters with tumultuous roar. All thought and feeling and desire, I said, Love, laughter, and the exultant joy of song Have ebbed from me forever! Suddenly o'er me They swept again from their deep ocean bed, And in a tumult of delight, and strong As youth, and beautiful as youth, upbore me.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.