Tide Falls And The Cross Of Snow example essay topic

334 words
Different Attitudes Towards Death Why do people have to die? This is a question that has been asked throughout history. Sometimes a person's death can mean a lot to us, or nothing at all. Shouldn't we be more intuitive about things that don't really affects up front, like a stranger dying? Because doesn't everything affect us when it all comes down to it? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tried to answer these questions from two different perspectives in his poems The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls and The Cross of snow.

The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls has an objective attitude towards death. It's about a guy who people think might of died because he left his footprints in the sand, but no one knew him, so it didn't really affect anyone. But should it affect us? I think that's what Long fellow was trying to say.

However, The Cross of Snow has to do with someone very close dying. In this case it was Longfellow's wife. When she died, a piece of him died as well. It's about how he " ll never stop loving her. Both poems represent looking death in different ways. The first clearly states that a lot of things are taken for granted, and maybe we should be more compassionate about things like people dying.

The second poem doesn't look so highly upon death, although it's inevitable. It suggests to me not wasting life and trying to get the most out of it, because you never know when you " re going to go. So, why doe people have to die. I think that the answer Longfellow was trying to give was that it was the natural coarse of things, and one day everyone does. So people should live everyday like it's their last. And also, that people should find a medium between those personal and objective attitudes towards death.