A “speechless rapture” is a reference to how he felt in his enchanted sensation of thinking of the river. The rapture in Christianity is often used to describe a time of great suffering in which sinners will experience wailing and crushing of teeth. The author highlights the wordless ecstasy that some human beings suffer in a moment while others see the beauty that the entire universe gets to see. The Rapture in Christianity is also the time when people who believe in the higher power of God are swept away from the earth while others remain to suffer on this planet. The author then reveals that the appreciation for the beauty of the river ceased in the course of his steamboat work. He no longer saw the splendors and enchantments that the moon, the sun and the twilight shone on the face of the river. The personification of the river creates a very intense but at the same time direct image of the river. Twain then notes that his lack of understanding really had no basis and he should have been more critical of the river from the start. Sunlight was intended to evaporate the river waters creating wind, the floating log clearly implied that the water level in the river was rising, and an oblique sign was an indication of a deceptive threat that posed a danger to a steamboat pilot like him. The tumble