The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

The tide rises, the tide falls,

The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;

Along the sea-sands damp and brown

The traveller hastens toward the town,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,

But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;

The little waves, with their soft, white hands,

Efface the footprints in the sands,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls

Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;

The day returns, but nevermore

Returns the traveller to the shore,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), who grew up in Portland, was one of the most widely read American poets of all time. His verse fell more or less into disfavor among academic critics after World War II, largely because of its lack of hard-edged irony. But his deftness with language, though antique-sounding to our 21st century ears, was extraordinary, and his gifted similes often evoke vivid human feelings, a quality whose value is not to be underestimated here in the age of frantic multiteching sociovirtual reality.