“A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Narrative Report

Presented to

Ms. Rona A. Pangatungan

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements in

Lit_012: World Literature

by

Bacala, Marian L.

Bacsal, Allan C.

(TTh 4:00-5:30)

2nd Semester, S.Y. 2019-2020

 A Psalm of Life

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
   Finds 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.

I. Introduction of the Psalm of Life

 “A Psalm of Life” is an inspiring poem written by the American poet Henry

Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem was first published in the October 1838 issue
of The Knickerbocker or New-York Monthly Magazine, a magazine published in
the New York City.
 “Psalm” means “glorification with respect”. So, it shows the poet’s admirable
attitude towards life.
 “A Psalm of Life” were mainstays of primary and secondary school curricula, long
remembered by generations of readers who studied them as children
 A psalm is a religious or sacred song or hymn, in particular any of those
contained in the biblical Book of Psalms.
 The poem is didactic in tone (didactic – contain a clear moral or message)

II. About the Author

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most widely known and best-loved
American poets of the 19th century.
 He achieved a level of national and international prominence previously
unequaled in the literary history of the United States
 Born on February 27, 1807, in Portland (while Maine was still a part of
Massachusetts Longfellow, was the daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth, who
had served in the American Revolution. She named this second son among her
eight children for her brother, Henry Wadsworth, who had died in Tripoli harbor in
1804)

III. Interpretation of the Poem

 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.

Interpretation
The very first sentence strikes the positive keynote of the poem. It also indicates that
the poet is going to give us some instructions on what this life actually is and how we
should take it. The poet asks us not to tell him in sorrowful verses that life is a hollow
and meaningless dream. And he assures that life is not so shady or worthless as it
looks like, and it has much more potential than we think of.

 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.

Interpretation
The second stanza begins with the line, ‘Life is real! Life is earnest!’ This also conveys
the poet’s positive attitude towards life. According to him life is real and serious, not
baseless or useless. So, we should not take this life lightly. To him, grave is not the
ultimate goal of life; life does not end with death. He wants to indicate that our works
remain in this world even after our death. He thinks, “Dust thou art, to dust thou
returnest” (You are made of dust, and you will go back to dust after death) is only
spoken of the body and it is not applicable to the soul. The poet makes it clear that he
believes in the existence of the soul after our death.

 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.

Interpretation
The third stanza of A Psalm of Life is about the ideal way of living. The poet suggests
that neither enjoyment, nor sorrow should be our ultimate aim or way of life. He means
to say that in an ideal life there should be both enjoyment and sorrow in a balanced
way.
  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

Interpretation
The fourth stanza of the poem A Psalm of Life is about our responsibilities in this life,
about the work assigned to us. “Art is long, and Time is fleeting” means that the work
given to us is vast and time consuming, but the time is running away fast with every
moment. The poet then says that though our hearts are brave and stout at other times,
we fear death and our heart beats when we realize that Death is certainly coming our
way bit by bit. Longfellow compares this situation of our heart to the beating of the
clothed drums at the funeral marches to the grave. Here he means to say that we
should utilize our limited time span to the fullest instead of wasting it in the thought of
death or other such thing.

 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!

Interpretation
In the above stanza of A Psalm of Life, the poet compares this world to a vast battlefield
where we, the human beings come temporarily in the camps to fight the battle of our
life. Human beings are compared with troops. The poet urges us to be a hero in this
battle of life, to fight this out bravely and finally win it. In other words, he wishes us to be
successful in life by following the right way of life. He doesn’t like to see us like the
dumb cattle driven by others, with no particular goal or direction.

 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! 

Interpretation
In the sixth stanza of the poem A Psalm of life, the poet reminds us of a very popular
quote: “Learn from the past, live in the present, and hope for the future.” But here the
poet instructs us not to trust the future, however pleasant it may seem, because we
often get carried away by the happy dreams about our future and forget to act in the
present. He also tells us to forget the past events, as they are dead, and they should not
haunt us anymore and affect our present action. And what is crucial is to act in the
present, ‘in the living Present!’ We have to follow our heart, and keep faith in the God
overhead.

 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; 

Interpretation
In the seventh stanza of the poem, the poet says that the lives of so many great and
successful men remind us that we can also achieve those heights if we wish and strive
for that. And if we can do that, we would be living forever in our works, in the hearts of
people. Longfellow compares this immortality to leaving footprints on the sands of time.
In other words, we will not be living forever here, but we can leave our marks on the
infinite flow of time through our good work. That would inspire later generations to follow
our way.

 Stanza Eight
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Interpretation
The poet continues the same theme of leaving a ‘footprint’ to inspire others to follow. He
compares a dejected or wretched person with a hopeless shipwrecked man sailing over
the large sea of life (‘life’s solemn main’). That person can find the examples set by us,
and can gain courage and hope to move forward.

 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. 

Interpretation
In the final four lines of A Psalm of Life, the poet Longfellow asks us to be up at once
and start working. However, the poet here urges us not to mind the consequences, or,
to make our mind prepared for any fate. We must carry on, reaching great heights, still
not leaving. We must learn to labor, to work hard, to act wisely, and wait for the rewards
patiently.

IV. Elements and Literary Devices of Poetry

 Sense (Visual imagery) – Author has used visual imagery to conjure mental
images such as, “In the world’s broad field of battle” and “Footprints on the sands
of time”.
 Allusions- Allusion is an indirect reference of a person, place, thing or idea of a
historical, cultural, political or literary significance. Longfellow has used this device
in the opening line of the poem such as, “Tell me not, in mournful numbers.” Here
the numbers refer to the chapters and sections of the Bible.
 Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such
as the sound of /e/ in “Lives of great men all remind us” and the sound of /i/ in
“Still achieving, still pursuing”.
 Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate subjects.
He has personified the soul in the last line of the second stanza, “Was not spoken
of the soul” as if the soul is human and it can speak
 Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the poem. Henry
has repeated the word “life” to emphasize his feelings about life in the fifth line
where it is stated as, “Life is real! Life is earnest.”
 Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line
such as the sound of /r/ in “A forlorn and shipwrecked brother.”
  Paradox: A paradox is a statement that may seem contradictory yet can be true,
or at least makes sense. He has used this device in the fourth line where it is
stated as, “And things are not what they seem.” Here he talks about appearances
versus reality.
 Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence grammatically
the same or similar in their construction, sound, meaning, or meter. This device is
used in the second stanza where “Life is real” is paralleling “Life is earnest!” and
again in the final stanza where “Still achieving” is paralleling “still pursuing”.
 Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line
such as the sound of /n/ in “Not enjoyment, and not sorrow”.
 Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are nine stanzas in this
poem each having four lines in it.
 Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian Here, each
stanza is quatrain as the first one and the second one.
 Rhyme Scheme: The rhyme scheme followed by the entire poem is ABAB.
 End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. End rhyme
occurs within the second and third lines and again within the second and fourth
lines. The rhyming words are “number”, “slumber”, “dream” and “seem.”
 Genre- Poetry
 Setting - The 19th century
 Tone- Hopeful, dynamic, sincere

Meaning of some words

 Mournful- mournful is feeling or expressing sorrow
 Slumbers - rest
 Earnest- showing sincere 
 Fleeting- lasting for a very short time.
 Stout- heavy build.
 Muffled- To muffle is to quiet a sound, usually by wrapping it with something. If
you try to speak with a scarf over your mouth, your voice will be muffled. When a
hitman puts a silencer on a gun, he's muffling the sound of gunshots,
since muffling makes things quieter.
 Bivouac- temporary camp without tents or cover, used especially by soldiers or
mountaineers.
 Strife- angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues; conflict.
 Sublime- of such excellence, beauty as to inspire great admiration
 Forlorn - sad and abandoned or lonely.
 Shipwrecked- the loss or destruction of a ship through storm, collision, going
aground, etc. any ruin, failure, or destruction
Conclusion

“A Psalm of Life” is a successful literary work which has a unity of form and spirit.
The main contribution of the appreciation relies on that not only tidy structure, clear
logic, harmonious meter and strong rhythm in form, but also positive theme, rich
implication and persuasive tone in content are discussed. Both the behind meaning and
literal beauty of the poem are worthy of our deep appreciation. Keep a devout attitude to
read it: our mind needs bread of spirit as our body needs bread.
Regretfully, the limitation of this paper is not linking the target lyric poem to society at
that time, thus lacking discussion in terms of social background. More researches can
move forward in this direction.