Previous Next

Longfellow structured his poem like a traditional narrative, where the three stanzas trace a conventional arc through beginning, middle, and end. In this regard, the mysterious traveler serves as the poem’s protagonist. The poem begins at dusk with the traveler walking along the seashore, approaching the nearby town. In the second stanza, the waves erase the footprints of the traveler, who has now entered the town. Finally, the poem closes just after a new day dawns, when it’s revealed that the traveler has disappeared without a trace. Summarized in this way, it’s possible to interpret the traveler’s journey from their arrival on shore to their departure from town as an allegory of life and death. That is, the traveler enters the “world” of the poem in mysterious circumstances, seemingly out of nowhere. They pass through this world for a short time. Then, finally, they disappear from it just as mysteriously as they appeared.

The bare-bones story structure outlined above bears an intriguing resemblance to a narrative form known as “the hero’s journey.” Traditionally, the hero’s journey follows a specially gifted protagonist as they journey forth into the unknown world, then return home upon the completion of their quest. This circular narrative structure appears in stories from all around the world. In Longfellow’s poem, the traditional hero’s journey is flipped on its head. Instead of a truly heroic figure, the mysterious traveler is completely devoid of distinguishing characteristics. Furthermore, instead of going on an epic quest that takes them far from home then back again, the traveler’s journey in the poem is much more banal. That is, they arrive at the seaside village from out of nowhere, then, after a brief stay in the town, they disappear again, as if vanishing into nothingness. In Longfellow’s hands, then, the hero’s journey gets stripped of all heroism and figures the life of an average human as a decidedly non-epic journey from out of cosmic nothingness and back again.

Previous section Tone Next section Meter

Take a Study Break