Comparing Thanatopsis And The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

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The romantic era lasted from 1800 to about 1860 and is recognized by its use of love, nature, or patriotism. A hero is normally involved in this story as well. The fireside poets, who were part of the romantic era, were well known for competing against British authors and writing specifically about the themes of America. The romantic era was mainly in the form of a poem. Hidden within the lines of these poems there is hints towards life and death. William Cullen Bryant and his work "Thanatopsis" and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" express messages with the theme of death and how it's a basic cycle of life, a person should live within the moment, and that there is an afterlife. Nature and/or natural instances such as death are portrayed multiple times within Bryant's and Longfellow's poems. The …show more content…

In "Thanatopsis" Bryant explains this exact thing through lines 73-76 "So live, that when thy summons some to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death". This flatly shows the idea of living in the present and to its fullest. At some point, all will be reaching the pearly gates, and this is nothing like the world that we just left. It is confusing and quiet. Longfellow also represents this in lines 8-10 when he writes: "The little waves, with their soft, white hands efface the footprints in the sands. and the tide rises, the tide falls". This should inspire people to live within the present, because once they have left, their prints in life will soon be erased from memory as well. One thing both poems again show is that the world still rotates upon its axis even though another person is gone. "Thanatopsis" recognizes this in lines 45-48 "The golden