The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls Man and the Natural World Quotes

There is life and death in these opening lines. The falling tide and the twilight suggest death, while the curlew's call suggests life. This little juxtaposition foreshadows the poem's later stanzas, where the traveler's death will be contrasted with nature's everlasting life.

For the second time now, we learn that the tide rises and that the tide falls. The repetition of this line throughout the poem as a refrain makes the rising and falling of the tide seem like an eternal process that will go on until… pretty much the end of time.

We're dealing with a personified nature in this poem. The "darkness" descends almost like some kind of killer dragon, and the sea is calling to somebody. The traveler is becoming less active while the natural world is becoming more active. This foreshadows nature's takeover in the next couple of lines.