How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises the tide falls. (8-10)
The waves have soft white hands, and we get the impression that the natural world is a gentle, motherly figure. At the same time, those white hands are "effacing" the traveler's footprints (getting rid of all trace of his existence). Symbolically speaking, the natural world takes over. It keeps going, while the traveler disappears.
Quote #5
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore, (11-14)
These lines in the poem's final stanza are the speaker's most direct statement about the permanence of nature and the shortness of human life. Check out how nature is doing stuff (the morning is breaking, the day is returning), but the traveler isn't doing anything. He's dead, and can't come back, but the world keeps on going.