James’s Blog

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. 5

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. 10

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. 15

In this poem, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow talks about a traveler who arrives on the shore of a beach and then goes to a nearby town. The traveler stays the night at the town but there is not much information that is shared about  what happened that night. In the morning the traveler wakes up and returns to the shore and leaves forever. While not plainly obvious at first this poem is an extended metaphor for the ideas of life and death and how quickly life can pass you by.

The title “The tide rises, the tide falls,” is repeated multiple times throughout the poem, once as the first line of the poem and then at the end of each of the three stanzas. The tide is a back and forth motion that repeats itself almost like a cycle. In a similar sense, life and death is a back and forth cycle, a person is born into this world and then lives out their own life and eventually dies. This happens over and over again every day with new people being born and other people dying. The repetition of this line at the end of the stanzas symbolizes how the tide falling represents the end of life.

Two lines that stick out to me are lines 8-9, “The little waves, with their soft, white hands, Efface the footprints in the sands.” With the idea of life and death many people attempt to leave their mark on the world and that is the purpose of their life. Whether that be to help others, be remembered for a big discovery or accomplishment, many seek to leave their mark on the world so that all of the struggle and hardship was worth it for them. In these lines the footprints are the attempts to leave something behind or be remembered, however, the tide washes these attempts away ultimately thwarting these attempts to be remembered. One interpretation that is a little more hopeful is that even though the physical attempts to leave something behind were washed away, the villagers from the town that the traveler visited still remember him and therefore the goal is not material wealth or remembrance but instead making an impact on other people as that is more meaningful.

Another line that stands out to me is line 4, “The traveller hastens toward the town.” This line stands out to me in particular because of the word, “hastens,” which shows the deep desire and want of the traveler to reach the town as soon as possible. The traveler wants to reach the town that represents life so desperately that he moves quickly to be able to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible because he knows that he will eventually have to leave the town. In the same way, many people will try and rush into life and have as many fun experiences as possible in order to make the most of their time on Earth.

The poem follows a AABBA, AACCA, AADDA, rhyme scheme. This creates a very melodic flow and smooth reading experience. This melody enhances the idea of the tide rising and then falling as the rhythm seems to follow a similar pattern of rising and then falling. 

A shift occurs in the poem between lines 10-11 in which the poem switches from the traveler heading to the town to the traveler leaving the town. This happens at the end of the poem in order to symbolize how leaving the town represents the end of life. Longfellow leaves the details of what happened in the town out of the poem because every single person is going to have a different experience and what matters is that it was enjoyable and that you were able to make an impact on others.

By: Clint Smith

when I was twelve years old

on a field trip some place

I can’t remember, my friends

and I bought Super Soakers

turned the hotel parking lot

into a water-filled battleground

We hid behind cars

running through the darkness

that lay between the streetlights.

Boundless laughter 

across the pavement.

Within ten minutes

my father came outside

grabbed me by the forearm

and led me inside to our room– 

His too-tight grip unfamiliar

Before I could object,

Tell him how foolish

he had made me look 

In front of my friends,

He derided me for being so naïve.

Told me I couldn’t be out here

acting the same as these white boys—

can’t be pretending to shoot guns

can’t be running in the dark

can’t be hiding behind anything

other than your own teeth.

I know now how scared

he must have been,

how easily I could have fallen

into the empty of the night

That some man would mistake

the water for a good reason

to wash all of this away.

In the poem, “Counterfactual” Clint Smith tells the story of when he and a couple of friends bought Super Soakers and had fun in the middle of a hotel parking lot while on a field trip. However, to his surprise at the young age, his father was not okay with this behavior as he fears that the young Smith could have potentially gotten into trouble due to him being a black man with a pretend gun. While he didn’t understand this at the time Smith now looks back on this experience with understanding of his fathers emotions but also a reflective sadness as the situation is unfair to him. 

A shift occurs on line 12(the beginning of the third stanza). This is where Smith’s father comes out to get him and pulls him away from his friends. Before this moment the poem is very light-hearted, happy, and joyful as Smith is just having a good time with his childhood friends while on a field trip. However, as his father comes to get him the poem becomes much more serious and reflective on meaningful and relevant issues such as racial profiling. Smith reflects on this experience at the end and says that he understands why his father did what he did, however, the fact that Smith had to grow up with that on his mind definitely still affects his poetry and his way of carrying himself.

When Smith says “His too-tight grip unfamiliar,” in line 16, he creates this image of an upset father being too rough with his child for the first time. However, this was not a punishment in the eyes of his father, but instead the best way to keep him safe. The fact that this was the first time it had happened represents a sad realization in Smith’s life that he does not have the same ability as his white friends to fool around in public. His father is likely too rough, not only to protect his child, but also because he knows that this realization will shift his kids perception of himself and the world and that is a sad thing to know. 

The use of the words “wash all of this away” in the last line of the poem carry a lot of weight as the image of Super Soakers is built in the beginning of the poem. In the innocent eyes of young Smith, these are simply toys that he can use to have fun with his friends, however, in the eyes of his father he sees real danger as another citizen or perhaps a police officer might assume it is a real gun due to racial profiling and then get Smith into trouble or worse. Since the Super Soaker represents real danger that is potentially life threatening the use of “wash all of this away” shows a line between the Super Soaker and a real gun being blurred as I believe Smith is referring to police violence when he says this. 

Most lines in the poem are enjambed, meaning that they continue the idea into the next line, however, a select few lines are end-stopped, meaning that they end the idea at the end of the line. This puts emphasis on those lines and their meaning in the poem. One example of this is in line 21 in which Smith writes, “He derided me for being so naive.” the fact that this line is end-stopped places emphasis on the word naive. This shows that Smith did not do anything inherently wrong but still has to be aware of where he is and what he is doing, much more than his white friends which is a sad reality.

By: Clint Smith

You’ve been sitting in that desk

a lot lately. Just you, those papers & pen.

Feels like you barely use us anymore.

We remember when your whole

world relied on everything we did.

We’re the ones who made it

so the bullies didn’t pay attention

to how many books you read

but instead how fast we moved.

Won the race to the fence and back

every Tuesday in P.E.

Gave you something to claim as champion.

Sure, we’ll admit it.

We didn’t always know how

to act when the DJ turned up the volume.

The beat got faster, & we made you

look more Urkel than Usher.

But this was never in the job description.

Still remember when you threw away

the New Balance and first wrapped

us in Air Forces.

Walked into school with alacrity.

The pure white sheen of Foot Locker

glimmering like quartz—

an indomitable sort of swag.

Thought this would finally be

the moment Alexis Sanders

told you she really liked you too.

But nah, you’re still the big headed kid

who likes Star Wars & French architecture.

You always did take us for granted.

Wasn’t until you fractured your ankle

that you realized what we meant.

That we kept you standing upright

when all this world has done

is try to knock you over.

When all you ever wanted to do is run.

My Thoughts: In this poem, Clint Smith is writing from the perspective of his feet, or the soul of his soles. He starts by showing his feet’s disappointment with the fact that they don’t get active as much as they used to. The feet then reminisce on the past and how they used to help him not get bullied because they helped him run fast, or how they maybe struggled a bit to dance. However, the feet realized that they had been taken for granted, used in order to gain something else and not fully appreciated. I believe that Smith uses this perspective of the feet to channel his own anger at himself through the personification at his feet. Instead of having to face his anger at himself it is easier to channel it through the voice of his feet because he is mad at himself for taking them for granted and it is a lot easier to comprehend that anger when it is seemingly external.

In lines 23-24 Smith uses a simile in order to compare the “pure white sheen,” of his new Air Forces, to quartz. This is important as it shows the value that the feet, and Smith, put onto the shoes. Smith “threw away the New Balances,” as they did not have value to him, but the fresh new shoes were as valuable as quartz.

A shift occurs in the poem at the point, “But nah.” For the most part, the feet had been explaining all of the great things that they had done for Smith. Right before the shift the feet are speaking from the perspective of Smith and talking about how he is going to talk to this girl he really likes and she’s gonna like him too and it’s gonna be great. And then it shifts, “But nah,” the feet want him to realize that he doesn’t have swagger and he isn’t this cool dude. No, he is just a “big headed kid who likes Star Wars and French Architecture.” This is Smith’s way of saying that the only thing that made him feel confident was what his feet could do, whether that be running fast or rocking a pair of new shoes. The feet also mention that Smith only realized the value they held after an injury in which he couldn’t use them. This is another example of how Smith uses the personification of his feet in order to direct his anger at himself through a channel that is easier for the mind to comprehend emotionally.

I think that the title “Soles” is very important because while it is spelled like the sole of a foot it is also homophone for the word soul. In the poem Smith speaks through the voice of his feet. He is giving a soul to his soles.

In line 27 Smith uses the specific name of a girl, “Alexis Sanders.” Instead of just saying something along the lines of “that girl you really liked,” or, “the prettiest girl in school,” Smith chose to name the girl that he liked at the time. This creates a connection between the reader and Smith as it makes the reader think back to a crush they may have had growing up. This allows for the reader to connect to the poem on a deeper level as Smith has introduced a form of Nostalgia in the reader. Not only does this create a connection between Smith and the reader but it also deepens the emotions from the feets’ perspective as they really took a jab at Smith by naming the girl he liked just to say nah she didn’t even like you back.

Clint Smith is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021. He is also the author of two books of poetry, the New York Times bestselling collection Above Ground as well as Counting Descent. Both poetry collections were winners of the Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and both were finalists for NAACP Image Awards. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Clint has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review, and elsewhere. He is a former National Poetry Slam champion and a recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review.

Previously, Clint taught high school English in Prince George’s County, Maryland where he was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council. He is the host of the YouTube series Crash Course Black American History.

Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University. Born and raised in New Orleans, he currently lives in Maryland with his wife and their two children.

Source: https://www.clintsmithiii.com/about

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