Poetry Analysis of “The Psalm of Life”
During our lifetime we are taught to live a life of pleasure and gratification. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Psalm of Life” teaches us otherwise. This highly distinguished poem is about the essence of life, the importance of leading a life where time is not wasted, where you have goals your willing to achieve with patience and virtue, and to be a hero in the midst of mayhem. Longfellow expresses his ideas of the importance of living a fulfilled life using rhetorical devices such as metaphors, similes, alliteration and imagery.
Throughout the poem, Longfellow uses metaphors and similes to convey the theme of making the most of the time you have on earth, to lead a satisfied life. In the first stanza, a young man is giving a psalmist guidance, he begins by saying, “Life is not but an empty dream!” by “empty dream” he means a meaningless illusion. Another metaphor is “For the soul is dead that slumbers” if one lives life as if it were a dream, than one’s soul would fall asleep and therefore would not be using time wisely to achieve one’s ...
For example, one line, “Soon our pilgrimage will cease; Soon our happy hearts will quiver, with the melody of peace,” which is saying that one day we will die, and you can’t stop that. “Lay we every burden down; Grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and a crown,” also reveals that you should appreciate what we’ve had, and what was given to us. This song is telling you, in every line, that you can’t live forever, but appreciate what you have, while you
One way Longfellow establishes his message is through the personification of snow and the ship that the skipper was sailing. Personifying the snow that “fell hissing in the brine” (line 23) contributes towards the central theme of the poem. A hissing noise makes the scene seem more deadly and dangerous than people would think it is. It resembles the hidden imminent dangers that are present if people get overconfident. The hissing sound of the snow
She gets to the point and proves that in our current world we tend to say more than we should, when just a couple of words can do the same. In her writing, it is evident that the little sentences and words are what make the poem overall that perfect dream she wishes she were part of.
On the surface, "life" is a late 19th century poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poem illustrates the amount of comfort and somber there is in life. Unfortunately, according to Paul Laurence Dunbar, there is more soberness in life than the joyous moments in our existence. In more detail, Paul Laurence Dunbar demonstrates how without companionship our existence is a series of joys and sorrows in the poem, "Life" through concrete and abstract diction.
The main way the poem gets its point across is with imagery. Swinburne starts his poem with imagery saying, “I saw my soul at rest upon a day / As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,” (Lines 1-2). Right away he uses Imagery and a simile to paint a
The speaker in each poem has a definite presentation of how he or she is grappling with big questions about the meaning of life. For
Longfellow’s poem is accepted in many history textbooks. This concurs that the poem is accepted as a credible source for historic information. The poem is used as a basis for teaching students what had actually happened. This helps students attain the primary details, however, disregard the inessential ones.
The rhyme of the second and fourth line allows the poem to linger in the thoughts of the reader creating a continuous reminder of the message being conveyed. These lines express the important message of making the most out of your time. The entire poem uses a metaphor which displays poetry as something that is fixed and that once it is written, it cannot be changed. The last two lines of this stanza relates the readers’ life to a poem with the use of the word sentence to refer to aspects of young Australians’ lives. This metaphor allows teenage readers to get the sense that it is important to make the most out of your life and not to stress about the small
“… Displays a cross of snow upon its side. Such as the cross I wear upon my breast…” (Holt literature p.174). In this quote he states that the narrator “wears a cross upon his breast” which indicates that the narrator might have religious views. This tells us that Longfellow might have had a religious preference- this isn’t surprising though because of the time period. The romantic period focused a lot on the reliance of God through nature. In his poem “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” Longfellow writes of the beauty in nature “ The little waves, with their soft, white hands, Efface the footprints in the sands…”(Holt literature p.172). In this quote he writes about the waves of the sea and how they erase the footprints in the sand. He does this by using personification; personification is when you give inanimate objects human qualities. This tells us Longfellow loves the serine beauty in nature. Another great quote “The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls…” (Holt literature p.174). This quote shows us great imagery and shows us how great of an imagination Longfellow had. The great imagery in Longfellow’s poems made him such a marvelous writer in his time
In this excerpt, Longfellow expresses his regret over not having taken the opportunity to pursue what he loved. In the same way, Longfellow urges young people to pursue the ``aspiration of their youth`` and to live life chasing their dreams, without regret.
As one matures, he or she gains a deeper insight of life. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a prime example for this statement. "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" was written in Longfellow's old age and contains a more pessimistic, yet more realistic, outlook on life compared to his earlier works. This poem draws an image of the ocean waves, interrupted by a traveler hurrying to town. All footprints left by this traveler are erased by the tides after he or she has left the shore. This poem reveals that time goes on even after we die, and, eventually, erases all memories of us, the passing traveler.
When analyzing the poem, “Life is Fine” by Langston Hughes, at first glance, it may seem like a short and simple poem about life. The poem is much more complex. The poem is about the obstacles that some people face in life and how to find the strength to persevere. This poem helps the reader appreciate life and encourages us to triumph over the most emotionally challenging obstacles rather than considering death as a solution. The character in the poem, although weak and confused at first, finds the strength to deal with the issues he is struggling with and comes to appreciate life, rather than turning to a tragic way out. The character makes a half-hearted attempt to take his life twice during the short poem because of the emotional pain of lost love, but fortunately, finds reasons why he shouldn’t. The character, although very confused, sees that there is good in his life and realizes that his lost love is not worth giving his life up for. Hughes had a tough childhood, being raised mostly by his grandmother. His poem “Life is Fine” very possibly was close to his heart considering he may have faced some of the same struggles he wrote of in his poems. Hughes has written other works such as biographies and short stories about life and its experiences and his works are valuable to readers in their lives as well (Norris). Throughout this poem, the character continuously tries to take their life but cannot do so because there are clearly more reasons to live than to die. This poem echoes the thoughts that people have about death when things get difficult and how they consider turning to death as the answer. Learning to deal with obstacles and appreciate every moment is a valuable skill in life. This poem is an inspiration...
The poem is structured as four, six lines stanzas. Within each stanza there are different ideas that all tie in perfectly together with the themes of nature, death, desire, passage of time and love. The narrator talks about his experiences by saying,” Out through the fields and the wood. And over the
He is writing the poem as if he were an object of the earth, and what it is like to once live and then die only to be reborn. On the other hand, Wordsworth takes images of meadows, fields, and birds and uses them to show what gives him life. Life being whatever a person needs to move on, and without those objects, they can't have life. Wordsworth does not compare himself to these things like Shelley, but instead uses them as an example of how he feels about the stages of living. Starting from an infant to a young boy into a man, a man who knows death is coming and can do nothing about it because it's part of life.
The poem singles out Paul Revere to be a magnificent individual, and this is further amplified as the poem goes on, “Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet… The fate of a nation was riding the night.” (Paul Revere’s Ride; Longfellow) Longfellow not only implies the power of Revere, but he also implies Revere carries with him the whole of the nation, that he is the symbol of their triumph. In many stories it is heavily implied that a hero often stands for the mass of the world, and the poem of Paul Revere is parallel to this classic connection.