It came with the threat of a waning moon

It came with the threat of a waning moon
And the wail of an ebbing tide,
But many a woman has lived for less,
And many a man has died;
For life upon life took hold and passed,
Strong in a fate set free,
Out of the deep into the dark
On for the years to be.

Between the gloom of a waning moon
And the song of an ebbing tide,
Chance upon chance of love and death
Took wing for the world so wide.
O, leaf out of leaf is the way of the land,
Wave out of wave of the sea
And who shall reckon what lives may live
In the life that we bade to be?

William Ernest Henley

In William Ernest Henley’s poem “It came with the Threat of a Waning Moon” the speaker explores the looming inevitability of death with a dismal attitude. Henley uses diction and imagery to display the speaker’s shift in his focus about death between the two stanzas. While the first stanza looks at death as inescapable and unknown, the second stanza questions who determines life and the loss of it.

The first stanza presents death as an inevitable phenomenon to be feared. The speaker uses words with a fearful connotation to describe the fate that they cannot escape. He describes death as a "threat"(line 1) and speaks of the "wail of an ebbing tide"(line 2). Personifying nature has the effect of making the looming death seem like a tangible entity. The speaker continues to remark that "many a woman has lived for less” (line 3) and that “many a man has died"(line 4). The use of the word “many” and the phrase “life upon life” (line 5) makes death seem impersonal, able to conquer anyone. The speaker continues to say that it sets free, but instead of into better places he writes “out of the deep and into the dark” (line 7). This adds to the mysterious quality of death and the depressing attitude the speaker holds.

In the second stanza the speaker still has a dismal attitude towards the end of life, but he begins to question its purpose. Life is made to seem replaceable, making each life seem insignificant. He writes that “leaf out of leaf is the way of the land” (line 13) and that “wave out of wave of the sea” (line 14).  The continual nature of life, and its ability to replace one leaf and one wave with another makes each ephemeral existence seem unimportant. The last two lines of the poem question who decides life and death, asking “and who shall reckon what lives may live/ In the life that we bade to be?” (lines 15-16). The speaker questions what higher authority decides what life may live, indignant about the insensitive nature of death. His disdainful attitude towards death’s inescapable and cruel purpose leads him to question who decides death, upset at whichever higher being has the power to take someone “out of the deep and into the dark”.

In this poem, William Henley explores the ephemeral nature of life which is randomly torn away by death, a mysterious and dark entity. The speaker is upset about this concept and questions the authority of death and its purpose, viewing life and death with a gloomy attitude. There is continual repetition of the sea and its “ebbing tide”. The receding water compares to the shortening amount of time left to live. Yet after the tide ebbs, it rises again and the cycle continues. This is similar to life because after one existence ends, another is born. This repetition makes the speaker feel insignificant and powerless against the inevitability of his life ending.