The Romantic Literary Period was a time of some the most interesting authors and pieces of literature ever created. Poetry was very prominent and so were the poets who wrote them such as the Fireside Poets. William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are the names of the five Fireside Poets. All of the poets write about death however because it was a highly talked about topic in the nineteenth century. ”Old Ironsides” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The First Snowfall” by James Russell Lowell, and “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, communicate death in their poems but all discuss the theme of death in a completely different way.

Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a poem known as “Old Ironsides” which uses a war themed approach to talk about death. Holmes sees death as a noble occurrence in life. The American symbol of nobility and freedom is the eagle, mentioned in lines 15-16, “The harpies of the shore shall pluck/the eagle of the sea” (Holmes 15-16). Holmes mentions the eagle as a symbol of honor as it watched over the sea as if once we die we all have a guardian angel looking out for us. Holmes also looks at death as a time that comes and is celebrated. Death has, is and shall always be a part of life that should be seen not as an evil act, “AY, tear he tattered ensign down” (Holmes 1). The tearing down of the flag, the decommissioning of the ship, or the death of a person is a time that is destined to come and should be rejoiced instead of mourned. In addition, Holmes views death as a time of remembrance. Life is full of times to look back on and recollect instead of weeping over something that shall never return,


“Her deck, once stained with heroes’ blood


Where knelt the vanquished foe,


When winds were hurrying o’er the flood


And waves were white below,


No more shall feel the victor’s tread,


Or know the conquered knee” (Holmes 9-14)
Holmes is implying that with every death there should be a time of remembrance, a time to remember the greater things of a person’s life. To Holmes, death is not bad but good and shall be celebrated instead of mourned.

Jams Russell Lowell was a poet who wrote “The First Snowfall” and viewed death as horrible and something that was meant to be mourned. A lot of times we cannot help but remember the ones we have lost without bad memories coming back, “And she, kissing back, could not know/my kiss was given to her sister,/folded close under deepening snow” (Lowell 38-40). Lowell is conveying that it is best to love others in a time of death to try and eliminate the memories. The persona needed to suppress the memory of his dead daughter and therefore counted on the snow to do the job for him, “How the flakes were folding it gently as did the robins the babes in the wood” (Lowell 19-20). Nature was covering the tombstone and prevented the persona from thinking about the death of his daughter. Lowell sees death as a sad phenomenon. The persona tends to recollect when he says “I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn where a little headstone stood” (Lowell 17-18). Remembering this headstone makes the persona seem melancholy when he thinks of the death of his daughter. Death in the eyes of Lowell is something that is unconventional and fills people with much grievance.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls,” to talk about death as a natural happening that cannot be stopped. Longfellow saw death as something destined to happen to everyone and is represented by repetition of “And the tide rises, the tide falls” (Longfellow 5). Dying is inevitable and cannot be stopped. The tide coming in would be birth and he tide retreating would be death, a natural process. Also, Longfellow feels that after we die life will go on and we shall be forgotten when he says,


“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” (Longfellow 6-9).
Longfellow believes that when death comes upon a person and strikes them, then there legacy will not be remembered yet forgotten. Longfellow is a poet who believes that death is a part of life and that we should accept it and move on.

All in all, death is inevitable and we all know it will happen one day. As it turns out these three poets had diverse views on death itself. Honorable, sorrow, and a part of life are the three characteristics each of these poets obtain. Something gathered from this poem analysis is that death is what you make of it.