Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

     Poets have often used symbols to convey deeper messages that they were either too afraid or felt that normal language lacked the power to express. Often when a symbol is used, the reader digs deeper into the issue more than if the message was simply shot out in the open. These symbols and metaphors can be used to portray beautiful things, or could be used to create a more compelling argument in a more subtle way.

In the novel “How to Read Literature like a Professor” the author, Thomas Foster, analyzed and broke down many literary techniques and reoccurring themes in literature. One of the most widely used literary techniques as shown in the novel was Symbolism. Symbolism is heavily used in literature from precipitation and weather to politics, almost everything we read in literature is a form of symbolism.

The second stanza, that talks about "That perches in the soul," uses the imagery of a bird to explain hope. She believes hope perches in people's souls as the hope becomes the home for hope. The subject is viewed as a metaphor as hope rests in people souls the way a bird is known to rest on its own perch. In both the third and fourth stanza the poem talks about a bird singing the tune without any words and does not stop at all. Dickinson makes use of the imagery of continuous bird's songs to depict eternal hope as the bird does not stop singing the hope song. The fifth stanza, which states "And sweetest in the gale is heard", explains the song of hope by the bird as sweetest to the wind (Dickinson & Vendler

The little waves, with their soft, white hands, Efface the footprints in the sands” (Longfellow 2). The author found his individual freedom in this poem. From the lessons he learned he understood that he must know the day will be gone and a new one will start. He is free to be and to do as he wishes. Just as if an artist messes up on a painting, they can grab a new canvas and redo it

Symbolism plays a large role in most poems. "A pure-white doe in an emerald glade/Appeared to me, with two antlers of gold" (Petrarch lines 1-2) is a perfect example of symbolism is poetry. Petrarch is not actually talking about a white deer with golden antlers, he's talking about a beautiful woman with golden hair. Wyatt also uses

A Splash Quite Unnoticed: Exploring the Ephemerality of Mankind in “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” and “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

“The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls:” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In the poem “ The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” it shows deep emotion that connects with people in an apparent way. It does not matter whether you experience something alike or not you can still relate to the theme of the poem. Also, you can relate to this poem because of the you feel the tone of the writer as you read the poem. The writer of the poem was able to address a personal issue by using an example of an event that occurs everyday naturally. Those being the reasons on why I chose this poem.

Another example would be “in the dawn of a most stormy life” meaning his life was pretty rough and sometimes it would be crazy. One more example would be this one, “I could not awaken my heart to joy” in this one he talks about how he did not experience joy like others did. Symbolism is a big part of the poem because it shows the meaning behind the words it makes you read between the lines and making you understand what the writer is talking about. Symbolism is use mostly so people will understand what the writer is talking about or just to understand the meaning behind the words, or what the sentence

The tide washes away people’s memories after death. It means a new beginning, because new people will come to the sands and leave their footprints. Longfellow tells that life still goes on with or without people. He wants to let the readers understand that the difficulties will pass, because the sea will wipe the world’s memories clean. Longfellow also uses rhetoric devices in his poem.

Imagery can be found in the last two lines when she wrote, “The distant strains of triumph, Burst agonized and clear!” This gave a direct visual of a man listening to the sound of victory in the near distance, as he laid motionless on the floor. This invokes a feeling of sorrow within the readers, since they can envision what Dickinson is talking about. A metaphor is demonstrated in the lines two and three when she says, “To comprehend a nectar, Requires sorest need.” In this instance, nectar symbolizes success.

Dickinson uses strong imagery in the first stanza. The reader imagines the booming sounds of large cathedral organs and the way the bass of them shakes your soul. She adds a negative connotation to these shakes by stating it “oppresses” the narrator. Following, Dickinson uses the metaphor of a slant of light on a winter afternoon to the opening her internal pain. As the slant of light opens, it is essentially opening up a seal of despair. Nothing external has affected the body; however, the heartbreak from the pain the narrator is dealing with leaves behind marks on her soul. She follows this theme through the entire poem that the slant of light has brought pain upon her.

Dickinson uses strong imagery in the first stanza. The reader imagines the booming sounds of large cathedral organs and the way the bass of them shakes your soul. She adds a negative connotation to these shakes by stating it “oppresses” the narrator. Following, Dickinson uses the metaphor of a slant of light on a winter afternoon to the opening her internal pain. As the slant of light opens, it is essentially opening up a seal of despair. Nothing external has affected the body; however, the heartbreak from the pain the narrator is dealing with leaves behind marks on her soul. She follows this theme through the entire poem that the slant of light has brought pain upon her.

There are three examples that outstood to me the most. Corresponding to what I just said the first notable to me was the last two phrases from the first paragraph of the poem. "He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim." This text from the poem shows an example of symbolism mixed with some metaphor and gives the readers a visual experience. the metaphors make he seem super noble and kinda like the royal. It makes the reader imagine the character much easier. Next phrase was "But still he fluttered pulses when he said,"Good-morning," and he glittered when he talked." this phrase changes the imagery a little, for example, it now uses both visual and uses the audience's sense of hearing. It also is symbolic to the text. Lastly, the phrase from the last paragraph of the poem is symbolic as well. "So on we worked, and waited for the night, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;" it gives an example of taste and visual as imagery.

Dickinson and Whitman also use similar poetic devices in "Hope is a Thing with Feathers” and “O Captain! My Captain!” Each poem contains an extended metaphor. In Dickinson’s poem, a bird clearly symbolizes hope. The first stanza introduces the bird metaphor: ‘Hope is the thing with feathers--/That perches in the soul.’ The next lines ‘And sings the tune without the words--/And never stops—at all—’ illustrate the interminable nature of the bird and hope. The second stanza expands the metaphor by saying ‘And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—.’ The bird’s song, or hope, is the sweetest during a Gale, or troubled times. The first lines in the final stanza ‘I’ve heard it in the chillest land--/ And on the strangest Sea’ describe the bird, or hope, as being

She uses a number of literary devices in the poem. One primary example of the figurative language that she uses is a the personifications do symbolism of hope. A symbol is an image that represents an abstraction. For example, a red rose may represent love, or a stone may represent hardheartedness. In “’Hope Is The Thing With Feathers,” the poet assigns hope the symbol of a ‘thing with feathers,’ more specifically a bird. Even though that, by the end of the poem, readers can definitely conclude that Dickinson used a metaphor by saying ‘hope is a bird,’ she does not make that clear until the very end. The metaphor began as only a “partial one: a ‘thing with feathers’ is not yet a bird, but some sort of object, not easily envisioned and defined only by the fact that it is feathered, that is, winged, capable of flight. It is a transient human experience, one that ‘perches’ in the soul but does not live there. It ‘sings the tune without the words,’ that is, a song in which rational, lexical meaning plays no role, while melody is all. Finally it ‘never stops at all’” (Leiter). The symbolism of saying that hope is a bird assists the reader in having a better understanding of how the virtue of human desire exists in side one’s soul, and is always singing – always alive – even when times get drastic. A bird is used to represent hope since “birds are often viewed as free and self-reliant, or as symbols of spirituality” (Rose and Ruby). The feathered fowl in this poem is “courageous and persevering, for it continues to share its song under even the most difficult conditions” (Rose and Ruby). Providing imagery of a bird also helps one to form connections as to what hope would act like if it were personified as said