The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were two writers heavily influenced by the romantic idea of embracing death, rather than fearing it. Their poems Break, Break, Break (Tennyson), and The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls (Longfellow) use repetition and loaded words to convey the theme of accepting death in order to truly live. The writers are able to convey their theme through their symbolical/metaphorical use of the sea.
In The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls, Longfellow uses the sea to represent nature’s consistency. The poem begins and ends with the words, “the tide rises, the tide falls.” These words are present in each stanza and show that no matter what events transpire in life, nature will always remain the same. Longfellow personifies the sea, giving it the ability to call in the darkness and “efface the footprints in the sand” with the “soft, white hands” of the waves. This personification shows how much of an impact nature has on humanity; it can erase the only sign(s) of humanity’s presence. Tennyson uses the sea in Break, Break, Break, to represent life’s unpredictability. He
writes,”Break, break, break,/On thy cold gray stones,O Sea!/And I would that my tongue could utter/The thoughts that arise in me” to express his inability to verbally convey how he feels as a result of the challenges that life has thrown his way. He also writes “Break, break, break,/At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!/ But the tender grace of a day that is dead/Will never come back to me” to show that once a day has passed, no matter how incredible or awful it was, there is no way to go back and relive it.
Each author establishes the mood of his poem through the use of repetition, loaded words, and imagery. Longfellow’s repetition of “the tide rises, the tide falls” establishes a peaceful mood because the soft sounding words are similar to the sounds of the tide rising and falling. In contrast, Tennyson’s poem repeats the words “break, break, break”, which establishes a hostile and depressing mood because the word break has a negative connotation. Besides repetition, Tennyson also uses loaded words such as “cold”, “gray”, and “dead” to establish the mood. Like the repetition of “break, break, break”, these loaded words have strong negative connotations which aid in the creation of a dreary mood.
Both of these poems express the central idea of life continuing after death.
In The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls, nature continues even though the traveller is not there to see it. In Break, Break, Break, the narrator’s life continues after losing someone close to him or her. The life described in The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls can be contrasted with the one described in Break, Break, Break. Longfellow writes about the cycle of the day: from twilight to morning to darkness, while simultaneously writing about the cycle of life and death. However, even though death is acknowledged and prominent, it does not take away from the glorious moments of life. In Break, Break, Break, the narrator’s sadness distracts from the ordinary, yet precious, moments of life, such as “the fisherman’s boy [shouting] with his sister at play” and “the sailor lad [singing] in his boat on the
bay!”
The romantic ideal of embracing death as a part of life is prominent in The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Break, Break, Break by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Both authors use the sea to convey the theme of their poem and establish its mood through the use of rhetorical devices such as repetition and loaded words.