Analysis of The Psalm Of Life
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
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.
Scheme | ABCBC ADAD EXEA FGFG HIHI AAAA JKJK LXLX FAFA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110111101 11101010 1111101 1011111 0111111 1111110 0011111 111111 1110101 10100110 11010111 11111110 1110111 11101110 01011101 11101110 10010101 00111110 001011 11111010 1010001 11101010 10111011 11001010 101011 11111011 11110101 00101011 110111 1101010 10101101 0010110 1011101 11111010 1011101 10101010 1110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,181 |
Words | 225 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 169 Views
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"The Psalm Of Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18901/the-psalm-of-life>.
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