can someone help me with this question? it's “Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children”

Question

The text began with the following.

Sleep is not, death is not; 

Who seem to die live. 

House you were born in,

Friends of your spring-time, 

Old man and young maid,

 Day’s toil and its guerdon,

 They are all vanishing, 

Fleeing to fables,

 Cannot be moored.”

How will this relate to the novel, what is the tone in the passage?

Answer 1

I loved this book! The poem is from a book written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This part of the poem is about how time keeps on moving forward and it can't be stopped. Everything is a cycle and keeps moving on. It says "the day's toil and it guerdon, they are vanishing," meaning the hard work that was done and rewards earned are gone, meaningless now. The tone is sad and mysterious.



In the world of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the children never age; they stay in their loops to keep them safe from the Hollows. But the children's lives are the same pretty much every day, they never grow up or change. Emerson's poem relates to the book, because Jacob is in a loop over 50 years in the past. All of his friends were his grandfather's friends and they haven't changed since. But the world has changed, Jacob lives in a world they can never dream of and never live in. Jacob sees the meaningless of it all and how even though his friends are safe, they can never be anything more than what they are now.