The analysis of Nature by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who is one of the fireside poets in 19th century. The presentation is about what this poem means and how Henry W. Longfellow approaches death. This presentation might be helpful for students who study literature. As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, Leads by the hand her little child to bed, Half willing, half reluctant to be led, And leave his broken playthings on the floor, Still gazing at them through the open door, Nor wholly reassured and comforted By promises of others in their stead, Which, though more splendid, may not please him more; So Nature deals with us, and takes away Our playthings one by one, and by the hand Leads us to rest so gently, that we go Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, Being too full of sleep to understand How far the unknown transcends the what we know.

1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)
● an American poet and
educator.
● He translated Dante's The
Divine Comedy.
● He was one of the Fireside
poets and a professor at
Harvard College.
● His first major poetry
collections were Voices of
the Night (1839) and
Ballads and Other Poems
(1841).

2. ● Longfellow wrote lyric poems, known for their
musicality
"what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like
as to listen"
● Longfellow did not often add autobiographical elements
to his poetry.
● He wrote poems as simple and clear.

3. Nature
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
And leave his broken playthings on the floor,
Still gazing at them through the open door,
Nor wholly reassured and comforted
By promises of others in their stead,
Which, though more splendid, may not please him
more;

4. So Nature deals with us, and takes away
Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest so gently, that we go
Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends the what we
know.

5. Structure
● The sonnet Nature is modeled upon the
Italian form
● It has fourteen lines in two sets.
● In the first set, rhyming goes as: ABBA,
ABBA
● In the second set: ABC,ABC

6. What does ''Nature'' talk about?
● The sonnet is about Death
● Longfellow compares humans, with the child and nature
with the mother and sleep with death
● Death is compared to the bed time of the child.
● The mother gently coaxes the child to leave its "broken
playthings" behind and puts the child to sleep.

7. ● People leave everything they have behind when they
pass away.
● What happens after life is unknown, a mystery.
● Longfellow's conception of death is agnostic. It is not a
Christian view of life after death in which sinners will go
to hell and the righteous to heaven. Longfellow's views
on the 'after life' are non-judgmental and apply to all
humanity.

8. Thanks for listening.