Poem Analysis

Can wind talk? Maybe even tell a story? No, not really, but the 19th

century poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was able to by using his creative

and adventurous personality and style into the poem, “Daybreak”.

Longfellow’s deep thinking and adventurous style creates symbolic

imagery that the true understanding of poems requires. “Daybreak” has

dialogue of a lifeless, outside force, wind, which creates personification.

Longfellow gave the wind the human ability to speak. This shows that

Longfellow thinks outside of the box. When, the wind spoke saying, “Awake!

It is day.” it revealed that Longfellow uses imagination and imagery in his

poems. The wind is like a symbol of an alarm clock or a rooster in the rural

lands. Longfellow felt like poems cannot be read without life. He believed

everything should have life.

Another important characteristic of Longfellow’s style is sound devices.

The wind whispered, yelled, sighed, and spoke like a normal human. The

ability to speak gave us insights on what the wind feels and what’s his

“niche”. “It crossed the churchyard with a sigh.”(17); Longfellow put

exhaustion and exasperation in the winds voice. You can just imagine the

same situation when your mother tells you to stop doing something for the

fortieth time! There are rhymes at the end of each line which gives it a

rhythm that can be translated into a child’s song. Sound devices help make

the poem unique and vivid to the readers. Longfellow favors the rhythm and

voice devices.
 Myths, tales, and theories can be found in a large amount of poems.

Longfellow used a common belief in his culture into lines 17-18 “It crossed

the church with a sigh and said, “Not yet! In quiet lie”. According to the

bullet notes at the bottom of the poem it said that church believers believed

that the dead buried in the churchyards with rise at the end of time with

everlasting glory. The presence of a belief brings a sensational feeling at the

end. Longfellow’s influences are his beliefs, close friends, and his dear

children. Influences create the poems; it constructs the tone, mood, and

style of the very words that your eyes lie on.

Longfellow uses sound devices, imagery, and cultural beliefs in

“Daybreak” to project his feelings from the heart and mind. “Daybreak” is a

symbol of his imaginative style and personality.