Poem: Free minds journey through--and are not constrained by--socially constructed realities

Caspar David Freidrich, Wikimedia Commons

In 1879, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow explored, in The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, how a wanderer's mindset can travel through and beyond stasis and repetition: "nevermore/The traveler returns to the shore."

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The tide rises, the tide falls,

The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;

Along the sea-sands damp and brown

The traveller hastens toward the town,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

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.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls

Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;

The day returns, but nevermore

Returns the traveller to the shore,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

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