![]() Longfellow wrote "A Psalm of Life" at the beginning of a period in which he showed an interest in the Judaic, particularly strong in the 1840s and 1850s. Answering a reader's question about the poem in 1879, Longfellow himself summarized that the poem was "a transcript of my thoughts and feelings at the time I wrote, and of the conviction therein expressed, that Life is something more than an idle dream." Richard Henry Stoddard referred to the theme of the poem as a "lesson of endurance". The didactic message is underscored by a vigorous trochaic meter and frequent exclamation. The poem, written in an ABAB pattern, is meant to inspire its readers to live actively, and neither to lament the past nor to take the future for granted. Another poem published in Voices of the Night titled "The Reaper and the Flowers" was originally subtitled "A Psalm of Death". His 1839 poem inspired by the death of his wife, "Footsteps of Angels", was similarly referred to as "Voices of the Night: A Third Psalm of Life". In the summer of 1838, Longfellow wrote "The Light of Stars", a poem which he called "A Second Psalm of Life". ![]() This volume sold for 75 cents and, by 1842, had gone into six editions. This original publication also included a slightly altered quote from Richard Crashaw as an epigram: "Life that shall send / A challenge to its end, / And when it comes, say, 'Welcome, friend.'" "A Psalm of Life" and other early poems by Longfellow, including " The Village Blacksmith" and " The Wreck of the Hesperus", were collected and published as Voices of the Night in 1839. The poem was first published in the October 1838 issue of The Knickerbocker, though it was attributed only to "L." Longfellow was promised five dollars for its publication, though he never received payment. Longfellow was further inspired by the death of his first wife, Mary Storer Potter, and attempted to convince himself to have "a heart for any fate". The next day, he wrote "A Psalm of Life". He was also inspired to write it by a heartfelt conversation he had with friend and fellow professor at Harvard University Cornelius Conway Felton the two had spent an evening "talking of matters, which lie near one's soul:–and how to bear one's self doughtily in Life's battle: and make the best of things". ![]() Longfellow wrote the poem shortly after completing lectures on German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was heavily inspired by him. ![]() Its inspirational message has made it one of Longfellow's most famous poems.Ĭomposition and publication history It was first published anonymously in 1838 before being included in a collection of Longfellow's poems the next year. Longfellow wrote the poem not long after the death of his first wife and while thinking about how to make the best of life. " A Psalm of Life" is a poem written by American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, often subtitled "What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist". ![]()
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