"A Pasalm Of Life"
Not to live in pursuit of death but, rather in pursuit of happiness and the better times. It seems to show that difficulties might happen. Yet, working to live your life to its fullest you might achieve your dreams, this is how I interpreted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “A Psalm of Life”.
In the opening stanza, Longfellow begins by saying “Tell me not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream.” With these lines Longfellow basically sates that he does not want to hear from those who feel that life is only time spent on earth and that there is nothing after someone dies. Longfellow shows that things may not be as they seem.
In the second stanza, Longfellow exclaims that life is real and earnest, but the grave is not its goal. Dust to dust did not refer to the soul just the physical body. Longfellow believes that the soul lives on after death.
Longfellow also re states that life isn’t about joys and sorrows. Instead, life is about doing some good while on earth so that the world is left a better place than it is today. Time is also personified as a person with a capital letter, as if it is a proper noun. Time is described as fleeting, which means that it is not permanent.
But it is something temporary in this world.
Another comparison Longfellow makes is to compare life to a battle field. From the day people are born until the day they die, they are leading and participating in wars and battles. This shows that people should not become self satisfied with life. Instead, mankind should make the most of every minute they have in this world.
One of the greatest verses of the poem is “Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time’ This stanza points out to the reader that mankind should take as example all the great men that have come before, Everyone should strive to be like them and leave footprints on others and the world.
In the opening stanza, Longfellow begins by saying “Tell me not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream.” With these lines Longfellow basically sates that he does not want to hear from those who feel that life is only time spent on earth and that there is nothing after someone dies. Longfellow shows that things may not be as they seem.
In the second stanza, Longfellow exclaims that life is real and earnest, but the grave is not its goal. Dust to dust did not refer to the soul just the physical body. Longfellow believes that the soul lives on after death.
Longfellow also re states that life isn’t about joys and sorrows. Instead, life is about doing some good while on earth so that the world is left a better place than it is today. Time is also personified as a person with a capital letter, as if it is a proper noun. Time is described as fleeting, which means that it is not permanent.
But it is something temporary in this world.
Another comparison Longfellow makes is to compare life to a battle field. From the day people are born until the day they die, they are leading and participating in wars and battles. This shows that people should not become self satisfied with life. Instead, mankind should make the most of every minute they have in this world.
One of the greatest verses of the poem is “Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time’ This stanza points out to the reader that mankind should take as example all the great men that have come before, Everyone should strive to be like them and leave footprints on others and the world.