A Psalm Of Life

Footprints, on the sands of time. These often quoted inspirational lines are a part of the poem ‘A Psalm of Life’, which was composed by H.W. Longfellow, way back in 1838. This poem relates to the people from all walks of life. It is an epitome of Longfellow’s philosophy on life. It is brilliantly crafted, and the theme and ideas are excellently interwoven, very simple words are used but their meaning is profound. It is a great inspirational poem. On 20th July it will be completing its 168th anniversary. Still, it is a part of school syllabus and is loved. It is a treatise on the art of living. It teaches that we should always strive to excel in whatever we do. It seems to be in sync with Lord Krishna’s message in Bhagwad Gita, to live and to let live, to do our duty because that is in our hands but success or failure is beyond us. Life is precious, life is beautiful, not a single moment may be wasted as “Art is long and time is fleeting” even in death the soul does not die but sleeps in slumber. We should not allow ourselves to be driven like dumb cattle. One, whose soul does not stir at the prospect of being an achiever, who does not nurture any hope is as good as dead, he has truly stopped living. We should learn to live in present, and try to make it better and glorious, that is the moment gifted to us by God that’s why it is called “Present”. The past is dead, it can not be changed, the future however promising it may look, but we do not have any control over it, its success can not be vouchsafed. “Act-act”is the clarion call given by Longfellow to the world. Time at our disposal is very short, with each passing day we are moving towards our death, so we should accomplish what we desire to, with faith in God. Our accomplishments may pave a way for the forlorn destitute souls, who have lost track of their rightful path. We may leave our footprints on the sands of time, we may set an example for others to follow. We can make our life sublime it will inspire other people to know that leading a life of fulfillment is worth living. On the whole, it can be categorized as a spiritual poem. 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 to-day." 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.

Ode on the Poets

This is the earliest of Keats’ odes. In fact, no other ode by Keats is dated earlier than this one, which sings the praises of some poets that he greatly admired poets who lived long before his time but whose literary work survives them and reveals the greatness of their vision of life and art. The poem has a simple rhyme scheme that goes aa bb cc dd and so on.The simplicity of the meter and the rhyme scheme matches the unsophisticated sense of admiration that the poet had for his heroes. Keats says that the poets who wrote poems of love and joy have now left this world. But they have left the impression of their immortality in their contents of their poetry. Thus, they live in heaven as well as on earth. These poets therefore enjoy two fold immortality—one in the heaven after their death and in their poems. These souls communicate with the other heavenly bodies in heaven. There souls enjoy the music of heavenly bodies. They listen to the sound of wonderful fountains, thunder like voice of God, and the rustling of trees in heaven. They sit comfortably in the beautiful lawns of heaven where only the fawns of Goddes Diana are allowed to graze. There they enjoy the beauty of blue bells and of daisies having a scent of roses. They listen to the songs of the nightangle, which express divine truth and philosophical knowledge in a melodious manner. The souls of the dead poets also live on earth through their poems. They teach us the brevity of human life. Their literary works deal with the joys, sorrows, passions and hatred of mankind. They reveal the glorious deeds of human beings as well as their shameful aspects of human nature. We also learn what strengthens and weakens the human spirit. Thus they impart wisdom to us although they have gone to the distant regions of heaven. The poem is an exalted lyric in which the poet expresses the great contribution made by the poets during their life. his is the earliest of Keats’ odes. In fact, no other ode by Keats is dated earlier than this one, which sings the praises of some poets that he greatly admired poets who lived long before his time but whose literary work survives them and reveals the greatness of their vision of life and art. The poem has a simple rhyme scheme that goes aa bb cc dd and so on.The simplicity of the meter and the rhyme scheme matches the unsophisticated sense of admiration that the poet had for his heroes. Keats says that the poets who wrote poems of love and joy have now left this world. But they have left the impression of their immortality in their contents of their poetry. Thus, they live in heaven as well as on earth. These poets therefore enjoy two fold immortality—one in the heaven after their death and in their poems. These souls communicate with the other heavenly bodies in heaven. There souls enjoy the music of heavenly bodies. They listen to the sound of wonderful fountains, thunder like voice of God, and the rustling of trees in heaven. They sit comfortably in the beautiful lawns of heaven where only the fawns of Goddes Diana are allowed to graze. There they enjoy the beauty of blue bells and of daisies having a scent of roses. They listen to the songs of the nightangle, which express divine truth and philosophical knowledge in a melodious manner. The souls of the dead poets also live on earth through their poems. They teach us the brevity of human life. Their literary works deal with the joys, sorrows, passions and hatred of mankind. They reveal the glorious deeds of human beings as well as their shameful

aspects of human nature. We also learn what strengthens and weakens the human spirit. Thus they impart wisdom to us although they have gone to the distant regions of heaven. The poem is an exalted lyric in which the poet expresses the great contribution made by the poets during their life. After Apple Picking obert Frost preferred to write within the traditional forms and patterns of English poetry, scorning free verse, comparing its lack of form and metrical regularity to playing tennis without a net. "After Apple- Picking" is not free verse, but it is among Frost’s least formal works. It contains forty-two lines, varying in length from two to eleven syllables, with a rhyme scheme that is also highly irregular; many of the rhyme lines are widely separated. There are no stanza breaks. Frost intends to evoke a mood of hesitation and drowsiness, as if the speakerwere about to drop off to sleep and is no longer fully in control of his thoughts. The poem is written in the first person; the speaker is someone who has worked long and hard but is now on the verge of being overwhelmed by fatigue and the depth of the experience. The details of his activity are recalled in contemplating the dream he expects to have. The poem is filled with images drawn from the speaker’s experience with the pastoral world; the events he remembers all took place on a farm, specifically in an apple orchard. He has climbed a ladder to pick apples; even when he has finished, he can almost feel the rungs of the ladder beneath his feet. The smell of the apples is pervasive, and he can still hear the sound of the wagons carrying loads of apples into the barn. All the sensory images are pleasant, but they have become distorted, as if the pleasant dream could become a nightmare. The speaker finds that the large harvest for which he had wished has become excessive: He has "had too much/ Of apple-picking." He recalls the details of the work with pleasure, but he is half afraid of the sleep he feels coming on. On the edge of sleep, he remembers not only the ripe apples successfully picked but also those that fell and were considered damaged and had to be sent to the cider mill. He knows that his sleep will be troubled by the failures more than by the successes. He is not sure about the nature of the sleep he is about to drop into—whether it will be ordinary sleep, more like a hibernation, or more like death. Forms and Devices The irregularities of line length and rhyme scheme, so unusual in a Frost poem, are noteworthy; they provide an almost staggering effect to "After Apple-Picking," as if the speaker were literally reeling with fatigue. More important, the meters are highly irregular, especially in the frequent short lines: "As of no worth," for example, where two unaccented syllables precede two stressed syllables, or "Were he not gone," in which every syllable receives almost equal emphasis. Reinforcing this impression of fatigue is the sense of disorientation which affects his senses: Images of smell, sight, movement, hearing and touch are all used. The speaker’s vision is compared to looking at the world through a thin sheet of ice which would distort and cloud what was seen. He has been off the ladder for a while, but he still can feel its rungs under his feet as well as its swaying. The apples he will see in his dreams are distorted, magnified to show every mark. He still hears the sound of the wagons. As is often the case in Frost’s poems, the language is poetic without being stilted. It is not really the language of common speech—no colloquial language is used—but with the carefully planned metrics, the language conveys the sense of someone speaking aloud. The richness of the imagery, reinforcing the drowsiness of the speaker’s mood, also contributes to this effect. The entire poem is a kind of extended metaphor, in which the activity of harvesting apples represents other kinds of activity, but Frost avoids metaphorical imagery, choosing instead

precise images and rhythmic patterns which tend to fall, reinforcing the dominant theme of the fatigue of the narrator: "For all/ That struck the earth,/ No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,/ Went surely to the cider-apple heap/ As of no worth." The language also supports the sense that the experience being described has become excessive: "There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,/ Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall."