"A Psalm of Life" (A Poem)

First published in The Knickerbocker in 1838, “A Psalm of Life” quickly became one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s most popular poems, being translated into over eight languages over the span of three decades.[1] Over time, though, the work fell out of favor due to its simplistic perspective on death and mourning; however, some literary critics see it as an artistic representation of Longfellow’s grief for wife’s death in 1835, in which the narrator finds solace in himself rather than religion.[2]

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.[3]

 

Works Referenced

 

Cengage Learning Gale. A Study Guide for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life.” Framington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2000.

 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “A Psalm of Life.” Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings. Ed. J.D. McClatchy. New York: Library of America, 2000. 3-4.

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[1] Cengage Learning Gale, 1-2.

[2] Cengage Learning Gale, 1-2.

[3] Longfellow, 3-4.