Fireside Poet Questions

1. The metaphors that Holmes uses to describe the ship in stanzas one and two include “The meteor of the ocean air”, “The harpies of the shore”, and “The eagle of the sea”.
2. The proposal that is put forth by Holmes, in the last stanza of the poem is to take the ship out to sea and let it sink with dignity and honor.
3. Holmes wants the ship to symbolize the love for the country which was brought about by the victory for independence from Britain.
4. Holmes alludes to harpies in the poem to represent the government who wants to steal the ships integrity and honor by scrapping it.
5. The title foreshadows the fact that the travelers will not return by the idea of “rises and falls” represents a beginning and an ending. The travelers don’t return because they have reached their “end”.
6. Longfellow’s poem could apply to all in general as the traveler represents mankind, and even though mankind will one day be gone, nature will remain.
7. An example of personification in Longfellow’s “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” is “The little waves, with their soft, white hands efface the footprints in the sand”.
8. Stanza one presents twilight darkening into night and the traveler makes his footprints in the sand. Stanza two presents the night and the tide “rises” and washes over the footprints that the traveler left. The third and last stanza presents a new day, the morning and the traveler has moved on.

“Life on the Pitch”
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