The poem written by Lord Tennyson seems to be making a very big metaphor all the way through it. The whole text is a personification of a river that actually represents the flow of life. The atmosphere, in fact, focuses on mortality of people and keeps referring to an inesorable flow that goes on no matter what, and contrasts it with references to a dramatic separation that will never find a solution.Moreover, it implies that the flowing river will, at some point, go into the sea and change its state, which represents the passage between life and death.There is a melanchonic sense of eternal separation and a remembrance of memories that are no longer real.