How does the theme of the poem "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" develop as the poem moves towards the end?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls" was compared to his renowed "A Psalm of Life" yet, there was a great difference'. In "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls", evidence that one has lived and passed was washed away, however, in the poem "A Psalm of Life" the footprints in the sand which remained was used to recall that great men has passed this way. "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls" also conveys that the life of a man is very different from nature--when man dies nature still lives and remains, and continues its cycle. True to this case, potential death of the traveler, has no effect on the ordinary pattern of the tide.