Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Ideological Transition from “A Psalm of Life” to “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”.
In “A Psalm of Life” Longfellow exposes his youthful naiveite by presuming that there is such a thing as a legacy that would last forever, however, in “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” Longfellow corrects himself and admits the error in his ways. In a “Psalm of Life” Longfellow presents a very optimistic view of the world. A view I personally don’t agree with. Longfellow states “Life is real! Life is earnest!” to him life was a unique experience that, if lived right, would leave a permanent mark in “the sands of time”. This is what Longfellow believed during his youth. As is the case with most young people, myself included, you aspire to greatness, you wish to be
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To Longfellow this was the ideal everyone should strive for, “Be a hero in the strife!”. He goes on to saying that we can all achieve greatness and that our greatness will inspire others who have given up in the search for glory, “A forlorn shipwrecked brother/ Seeing, shall take heart again.” This is a very sweet fantasy nonetheless. While it is true that greatness is at everyone’s grasp, it doesn’t last forever. The greatest conqueror, the mightiest king, and the most noble hero have but one fate in common, other than death. That fate is to be forgotten. Nature finds a way to dispose of, not only your physical body, but also every trace of you from this planet. Longfellow states this in “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” “The little waves… Efface the footprints in the sands”. Longfellow, as he aged and came closer to death, realized this. His views of the world turned rather pessimistic, perhaps the death of his wife in 1861, or the acute stomach pains that would eventually give him a painful death triggered this transition. Nearing the end of his life