A Psalm of Life

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A Psalm of Life

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
__Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
__And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
__And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
__Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
__Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
__Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
__And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
__Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
__In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
__Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
__Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
__Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
__We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
__Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
__Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
__Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
__With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
__Learn to labor and to wait.

______________________________

A Psalm of Life by Hendry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of the most famous pieces of poetry in the English language. The poem is at first an argument against life ending at the moment of death, but it then evolves into a piece about the purpose of life and how one should live through its ups and downs.

For some of the piece’s history:

(via wiki)

“A Psalm of Life” is a poem written by American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, often subtitled “What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist”. Longfellow wrote the poem not long after the death of his first wife and while thinking about how to make the best of life. It was first published anonymously in 1838 before being included in a collection of Longfellow’s poems the next year. Its inspirational message has made it one of Longfellow’s most famous poems.

Composition and publication history

Longfellow wrote the poem shortly after completing lectures on German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was heavily inspired by him. He was also inspired to write it by a heartfelt conversation he had with friend and fellow professor at Harvard University Cornelius Conway Felton; the two had spent an evening “talking of matters, which lie near one’s soul:–and how to bear one’s self doughtily in Life’s battle: and make the best of things”. The next day, he wrote “A Psalm of Life”. Longfellow was further inspired by the death of his first wife, Mary Storer Potter, and attempted to convince himself to have “a heart for any fate”.

The poem was first published in the September 1838 issue of The Knickerbocker, though it was attributed only to “L.” Longfellow was promised five dollars for its publication, though he never received payment. This original publication also included a slightly altered quote from Richard Crashaw as an epigram: “Life that shall send / A challenge to its end, / And when it comes, say, ‘Welcome, friend.'” “A Psalm of Life” and other early poems by Longfellow, including “The Village Blacksmith” and “The Wreck of the Hesperus“, were collected and published as Voices of the Night in 1839. This volume sold for 75 cents and, by 1842, had gone into six editions.

In the summer of 1838, Longfellow wrote “The Light of Stars”, a poem which he called “A Second Psalm of Life”. His 1839 poem inspired by the death of his wife, “Footsteps of Angels”, was similarly referred to as “Voices of the Night: A Third Psalm of Life”. Another poem published in Voices of the Night titled “The Reaper and the Flowers” was originally subtitled “A Psalm of Death”.

Stanza One:

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
__Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
__And things are not what they seem.

Lines one and three both have 8 syllables while lines two and four each have 7. The stanza is written with an ABAB rhyme scheme.

The Speaker is arguing with an unknown listener – perhaps himself and his own doubts – about the nature of life. He does not want to hear that life is temporary and void of eternal meaning. In lines 3 and 4, and for must of the rest of the poem that follows, he begins making the case that the human soul is eternal and that there is more to our existence than what we see.

Stanza Two:

Life is real! Life is earnest!
__And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
__Was not spoken of the soul.

The rhyme scheme of the first stanza continues, as does (generally) the syllabic pattern, though the 5th line breaks the pattern of odd lines having 8 syllables, with only 7.

In this stanza, the poet argues that the soul survives the body and is the essence of its life – continuing on after the body’s passing. The argument that “Life is real!” is a refutation of the first stanza’s Listener arguing the opposite – that life is a dream. The body may have been formed from dust, and destined to return to dust, but the soul is touched by the divine.

One great burden of experience – grief and loss – might cause those who are still living to cease doing so. Thus the purpose of this stanza is a reminder that not even death or grief is a good reason to join the souls who become inactive and slumber (line 3.) The soul one grieves continues to live. And one’s own life must also continue to live. It is worth remembering as a reader that Longfellow wrote this poem in the midst of his own personal grief – the loss of his wife.

Stanza Three:

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
__Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
__Find us farther than to-day.

Here the tone of the poem shifts and more directly argues for the human purpose. In line 9, the Speaker asserts that life’s purpose is neither enjoyment nor sorrow. Those things will occur, but they are not an answer as to why. Instead, as we see in line 11, the Speaker says that the purpose of life is “to act” in a way that advances us. The Speaker does not say in this stanza what “find us farther” means, though we can surmise that this is a directional reference to our eternal end.

Stanza Four:

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
__And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
__Funeral marches to the grave.

Stanza Four sees the poet beginning the longer-form response to the Listener, after providing a summed up version in the third stanza. In line 13, the Speaker acknowledges that life does not include enough time to experience everything. Our hearts beat like “funeral drums” because our bodies have such short lives.

Stanza Five:

In the world’s broad field of battle,
__In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
__Be a hero in the strife!

bivouac:

noun

1. A temporary encampment often in an unsheltered area.
2. The watch of a whole army by night, when in danger of surprise or attack.
3. An encampment for the night without tents or covering.

After reasserting life’s brevity in the fourth stanza, the Speaker encourages the Listener to view himself as more than “dumb, driven cattle” (the sort of cynical self-view that one might adopt if one views life a ending at the body’s death.) Instead, he encourages the Listen to be a hero. We should assume that heroism includes that one endeavor “to act” as we read in line 11 of the 3rd stanza. In fact, the Speaker refers back to that himself in the next stanza.

Stanza Six:

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
__Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
__Heart within, and God o’erhead!

The Speaker encourages the Listener to live and act, in the moment. Failure to act now, trusting in a pleasant future, is a thing to be avoided. Failing to act now, weighed down by the past is also a bad thing. The past is dead and should remain there. The poet refers to the Gospel of Luke 9:60 in line 22, with “let the dead bury its dead!”

We still do not get clarity what it means “to act” though “God o’erhead” provides context clues.

Stanza Seven:

Lives of great men all remind us
__We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
__Footprints on the sands of time;

Here the Speaker shifts from discussing the eternity of souls to the endurance of legacy. He reminds the Listener that “great men” should remind us that life, when lived well, continues its impact well after death. With the context of the previous stanza, we can infer the Speaker’s belief that acting within the living present can produce such a life legacy.

Stanza Eight:

Footprints, that perhaps another,
__Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
__Seeing, shall take heart again.

In the eighth stanza, the Speaker explains the importance of legacy. Continuing with the “footprints in the sand” metaphor from the previous stanza, the Speaker suggests that those footprints – even if they are seen long after the one who made them is gone – can help other people. A life well-lived, wherein one acts in the presents, can be something in which others take comfort or refuge.

Stanza Nine:

Let us, then, be up and doing,
__With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
__Learn to labor and to wait.

Here the Speaker tells us what he has meant with the admonishment “to act.” He encourages all people to be active in their work – whatever that might be – prepared for both the good and the bad that life might bring, but not letting either cause labor to cease.

The poem, as a whole, is motivational. The Speaker encourages the Listener to live – to truly live – and to not let the ups and downs of experience slow or hinder that great endeavor.