2013-31 H W Longfellow: A Psalm of Life
A Psalm of Life
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
[1807-1882] was a commanding figure in the cultural life of
nineteenth-century America. Born in Portland, Maine in 1807, he became a
national literary figure by the 1850s, and a world-famous personality by the
time of his death in 1882.
He was a traveler, a linguist, and a romantic who identified himself with the great traditions of European literature and thought. At the same time,
he was rooted in American life and history, which charged his imagination with
untried themes and made him unique.
He lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he taught at Harvard,
married Fanny Appleton, became a father, and wrote many of his most enduring
poems like The Song of Hiawatha, Evangeline, Paul Revere's Ride, The Ladder of St Augustine and A Psalm ofLife.
A Psalm of Life
[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.
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Longfellow put this poem aside at first, unwilling to show it to anyone. For, he explained that it was a voice from his inmost heart, at a time when he was rallying from the deep depression caused by the death of his dear wife.
But later, when he allowed it to be published, it went straight to the hearts of millions of people. No poem ever written became so well known so fast. It was taught in schools, recited on the stage, discussed from pulpit to lecture platform.
Generations of school children grew up under the influence of Longfellow's "Psalm". Many prominent men later acknowledged that influence with gratitude. Psalm's appeal is as vital and timely now, as it ever was.
The call to courage and action of a man emerging from a great sorrow, A Psalm of Life is one of the best-loved and most widely read poems in the world. Its lines are full of faith and hope, its message clear and unmistakable.
"A Psalm of Life" has helped millions of the weary, unhappy and discouraged men and women, to be "up and doing, with a heart for any fate". No poem more richly deserves its place among the all-time inspirational classics of mankind.
[Courtesy Light from Many Lamps - A Treasury of Inspiration by Lillian Eichler Watson p.126]
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nice
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