Question

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.

What mood does this stanza from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” evoke in the reader?


a relaxed sense of amusement


a peaceful sense of completion


a growing sense of anxiety


an overwhelming sense of hostility

Answer 1

A peaceful sense of completion

Answer 2

The stanza evokes a peaceful sense of completion.
It kindles the feeling of going home, or in a more profound way, finding rest in dying.
The “footprints in the sands” is a metaphor for the life that the speaker lived, and the “tide” is a metaphor for death, wiping away the footprints.
The last line “And the tide rises the tide falls,” implies that the speaker believes there is life after death.