(1) Sea Level
There was a reason Longfellow was so darn popular in his day. Here's a secret: it wasn't because he wrote complicated, convoluted, head-scratchers for poems. Nope, Longfellow always kept his poems pretty simple, simple enough at least that you'd enjoy reading them by the fire (to yourself or out loud). "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls" follows this basic pattern. Aside from a few odd words that you can be forgiven for not knowing (what's a "curlew" again?), this poem makes for light, but profound reading.