Comparing Poems Essay Example

reader think about what may have happened to the traveler who was there at the shore the day before, then went into town & never returned.

Where as in Bryant’s poem words and phrases such as “mellow” and “he speaks a various language for his gayer hours” not only help establish his peaceful tone they also allow the reader to think of something that Is free of tension and the phrase “he speaks a various language; for his gayer hours” makes the reader think of a happy time and place. Both poems use a lot of figurative language to help set their tone. In Longfellow’s poem he uses the phrase “Darkness settles ….

The little white waves with their soft white hands efface the footprints upon the sand” to help make the tone eerie. One may notice that Longfellow states that darkness has already started to settle in. As the reader is reading this phrase the might also notice that seas do not have “soft white hands” to “efface the footprints upon the sand” with. The phrase though helps the reader to imagine a sea at dark with the tide waves as their soft white hands and then effacing the footprints that the traveler had previously left; helping to create that eerie tone.

Bryant’s use of figurative language shows a whole other outlook on the situation. Since Bryant is trying to set a calming/peaceful tone to his poem he uses words and phrases that help enforce peacefulness. For example, one of his phrases states, “She has a voice of gladness, and a smile and eloquence of beauty” as he speaks about Mother

Nature. Though nature may not be able to be seen he Bryant explains it in such a way that helps one to get the peaceful/calming vibe in which he is trying to give off, which helps to set the tone.

These two poems help to establish that there is always more than one way to view a situation. While in poems written by poets Longfellow and Bryant they focused on the topic of death, there is always more than one point of you on any topic. Both poems seem to enforce that death comes either way but while Longfellow’s poem introduces a happy way to think of death, saying that when you’re about to die you should go outside into nature and be happy and though death may happen to everyone, it is a peaceful happy thing that you should embrace.

Bryant’s poem gives a completely different outlook on death. Bryant’s poem makes one view death as a thing that happens to everyone, with no way of escaping it. Throughout Bryant’s poem the last phrase of each stanza read, “And the tide rises, the tide falls”, which makes you think that even though you may have died and your life has stopped everything else that was around you still continues on.