One of my favorite poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, had described life through an inspiring piece of poetry that I had committed to memory when I was first introduced to the beauty and depth of meaning of its lyrics. Considered the most popular American poet of the 19th century, Longfellow's talent was unchallenged. I had always been partial to his gift of poetic expression and could recite at random a number of stanzas from some of his notable works. But "A Psalm of Life" stood head and shoulders, in my own opinion, above his other works due to its perceptive and evocative insight to the often complicated saga of human existence. Just to jog a sluggish part of an age-challenged cranial gray matter, I thought it might be helpful to reprint this much-loved poem in its entirety:
A PSALM OF LIFE
(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.
It is clear to envision that Longfellow's perception of how life should be, flows from a strong archetypal mold: the Lord of Creation himself. There is an unmistakable undercurrent of an idealistic thread that provides the reader with a principled paradigm of human values that we should all strive to attain. Despite the seeming elevated expectation that most will certainly find daunting, it is neither unrealistic nor unreasonable. Attestations to the simple truth that we are not just expected, but are capable to achieve the lofty standards that separate the "chaff" from the "grain" of life, are replete, not only from works of art, not only from the the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, but from the remarkable existence then and now of noble men and women that history has provided for our benefit. Their enduring "footprints on the sands of time" that serve to guide our own, can only be perpetuated by an equal measure of sublime commitment and adherence to what is noble and true, to what is decent and God-like in all of us.
As we sail "o'er life's solemn main" our focus to endure with grace will be tested and grossly challenged. But as we realize that life's meaning can only be enhanced by that unfettered allegiance to make the journey less burdensome for others, we will discover that "in the bivouac of life" we can emerge triumphant and become a far more superior specimen than the initial spiritual embryo, albeit divine, that graced the world when we first come to inhabit it. Only then, only in such enhanced state, can we be worthy to reside in the presence of the one true God that created all that is "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy" (Art. of Faith#13), those virtues the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has intentionally or unintentionally advocated in his poetic art.
"A Psalm of Life", with its emblematic and antithecal lines, has the ability to comfort and instruct while it extols those very human values we can all achieve, the divine attributes that are within each of our inner selves and meant for us to discover, nurture, and embrace as sons and daughters of God, heirs to everlasting, that we all are.
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