Loss And Gain Longfellow Summary

In the poem “Loss and Gain” (1893), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow emphasizes the ups and downs of life, and how the negatives of life are inevitable, however they can be turned into something positive. Longfellow is able to make this clear by writing the poem in first person to try and relate with the audience, and by using optimistic diction and tone. Mr. Longfellow’s purpose in this poem is to show the audience that in life some will fail at times, in order to reveal that those failures can be turned into something positive with the right mindset.
I like how this poem turns a negative topic into something completely different. Through comparing and contrasting the ups and downs in life, the author shows that everything could be turned negative, but with a positive mindset the doors may change and be completely opposite in what
For example when the author states that, “ I am aware how many days have been idly spent.”(ls. 5-6) The word “aware” is optimistic because the person saw the brighter side of how his/her days are spent. While the words “idly spent” bring a different aspect to the poem due to the fact that they basically are saying that this person does nothing good with their life.This person saw that their days are spent doing something unproductive and the fact that is optimistic is that, they became alert in what their day was consisting of. At first, when you read this quote you might think that maybe this person does nothing great with his/her life, however when this quote is reread I got a different mindset because, I saw that they are willing to change by becoming “aware” or alert in how change may take place. Later on throughout the poem the author enforces that,”