What is a summary of the Psalm of Life?

Answer 1

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow begins his poem "A Psalm of Life" with the same exuberance and enthusiasm that continues through most of the poem. He begs in the first stanza to be told "not in mournful

numbers" about life. He states here that life doesn't abruptly end when one dies; rather, it extends into another after life. Longfellow values this dream of the afterlife immensely and seems to say that life can only be lived truly if one believes that the soul will continue to live long after the body dies. The second stanza continues with the same belief in afterlife that is present in the first.

Longfellow states this clearly when he writes, "And the grave is not its goal." Meaning that, life doesn't end for people simply because they die; there is always something more to be hopeful and optimistic for. Longfellow begins discussing how humans must live their lives in constant anticipation for the next day under the belief that it will be better than each day before it: "But to act that each to-morrow / Find us farther than

today."

In the subsequent stanza, Longfellow asserts that there is never an infinite amount of time to live, but art that is created during one's life can be preserved indefinitely and live on long after its creator dies. In the following stanzas, Longfellow likens living in the world to fighting on a huge field of battle.

He believes that people should lead heroic and courageous lives and not sit idle and remain ineffectual while the world rapidly changes around them: "Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!" His use of the word "strife" is especially interesting, since it clearly acknowledges that life is inherently difficult, is a constant struggle, and will never be easy. Longfellow then encourages everyone to have faith and trust the lord and not to rely on an unknown future to be stable and supportive.

Answer 2

The word 'psalm' has a few distinct senses:

1: any sacred song used to praise the deity;

2: sing or celebrate in psalms;

3: one of the 150 lyrical poems and prayers that comprise the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament; said to have been written by David.

Answer 3

Poem Summary

Lines 1-4

In the opening stanza, the speaker directly addresses the psalmist. He begins by dismissing the psalmist's sad poetry, and he rejects as dangerous the psalmist's notion that human life is a meaningless illusion. If one accepts the logic that life is just a dream, he cautions, one's soul will not merely sleep, but die. On the surface, human life may appear futile, but the speaker contends that it is actually this sense of hopelessness - and not human life itself - that is the illusion.

Lines 5-8

Longfellow uses the second stanza to build on the ideas of the first. Because the soul lives eternally, the speaker reasons, life must be real. Note that in the first line there is a caesura, or break, after the word "real." This caesura forces the reader to pause, thereby emphasizing the idea that life is real. These lines are an allusion to The Bible's book of Genesis, where God says to the fallen Adam, "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." In Longfellow's poem, the speaker is asserting that although the mortal body will die, the soul is exempt from death.

Lines 9-12

The third stanza introduces the central theme of the poem: the purpose of life is not to experience pleasure or sorrow, but "to act" - to perform the deeds that will improve the condition of mankind. Note that by this point in the poem, the speaker has ceased to address the psalmist; instead, he is directing his remarks to mankind in general, as is evidenced by his broadly inclusive use of the first person plural - "our" and "us."

Lines 13-16

The fourth stanza begins with an allusion to a line from Seneca's work De Brevitate vitae, which states "vita brevis est, ars longa," or "Life is brief, art long." The idea here is that although a lifetime passes relatively quickly, it actually takes a long time to learn how to live well - to decipher the "art" of living. The speaker is suggesting with some urgency, then, that we should live as productive a life as possible, because death (of the human body, not the soul) is always imminent. Note the simile in line 15, which compares the human heartbeat to "muffled drums." On a literal level, of course, a heartbeat can sound like a drumbeat, but Longfellow extends this idea to suggest that our own hearts are measuring out the backbeat of a steady and irreversible journey toward death. Each beat of our hearts, Longfellow implies, carries us closer to death. If you read the stanza aloud, you will notice that, at this point, the trochaic rhythm is especially steady and even; it sounds as though a drum is beating in the background.

Lines 17-20

These lines rely heavily on war imagery, as the march to the grave has been transformed to a march to battle. By comparing life to a "bivouac," a temporary campsite during a battle, the speaker reminds us again of the transience of human existence. He exhorts the reader - who, by implication, is a soldier - to become a hero in this battle and not merely march to his or her death like a cow forced to the slaughterhouse.

Lines 21-24

In the sixth stanza, the speaker explains in detail how the reader can become a hero. He advises the reader not to hope for the future nor to worry about the past. Instead, in a return to the poem's central theme, he urges the reader to live actively in the present. The speaker emphasizes his imperative instruction that we "act" by repeating the word twice in line 23. Note how Longfellow draws our attention to the word "act" by manipulating the meter: not only does he insert a caesura between the two "acts," but, metrically, the two consecutive words are stressed, giving them added force.

Lines 25-28

In the seventh stanza, the speaker asks the reader to consider past heroes. These "great men," the speaker indicates, should inspire us to live our lives so fully that we, too, will leave behind records of greatness when we die. Longfellow suggests the idea of a record of greatness by using a metaphor: "footprints on the sands of time." Even here, however, this metaphor ironically reminds us of the transient nature of life, since these footprints will eventually be washed away by the tide. Nonetheless, they may have a positive effect on the people who live after us.

Lines 29-32

The "footprints" metaphor of the seventh stanza develops into the central conceit, or governing concept, of the eighth stanza. The speaker envisions a shipwrecked sailor who is lost at sea but observes these footprints in the sand. In this conceit, the sailor represents any discouraged or lonely individual who receives encouragement from the memory of the good deeds of others.

Lines 33-36

The speaker concludes the poem by exhorting us to live active, courageous lives. He is urging the reader to strive continuously to accomplish good, useful deeds: these good deeds, it is suggested, give life meaning and purpose. The last word of the poem, "wait," has a few possible meanings; it can mean "to serve" others - in this case, by working or "laboring" diligently; it can mean "to be ready" for someone or some event; or it can mean to be "watchful" - to be on the lookout for good opportunities as well as to be on guard against unexpected events or dangers. The poem ends, then, as it began, with a word of caution and of hope.

Answer 4

Literal translation is "song of life" or "poem about life" - a Hebrew term.