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Composition and Publication History: Night in 1839
Composition and Publication History: Night in 1839
Analysis[edit]
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.[1] The didactic message is underscored by a
vigorous trochaic meter and frequent exclamation.[8] 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."[12] Richard Henry Stoddard referred to the theme of the poem as a "lesson of endurance".[13]
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. More specifically, Longfellow looked at the
American versions or American responses to Jewish stories. Most notable in this strain is the poet's
"The Jewish Cemetery at Newport", inspired by the Touro Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island.[14]
Further, the influence of Goethe was noticeable. In 1854, an English acquaintance suggested "A
Psalm of Life" was merely a translation. Longfellow denied this, but admitted he may have had some
inspiration from him as he was writing "at the beginning of my life poetical, when a thousand songs
were ringing in my ears; and doubtless many echoes and suggestions will be found in them. Let the
fact go for what it is worth".[15]
Response[edit]
"A Psalm of Life" became a popular and oft-quoted poem, such that Longfellow biographer Charles
Calhoun noted it had risen beyond being a poem and into a cultural artifact. Among its many quoted
lines are "footprints on the sands of time".[3] In 1850, Longfellow recorded in his journal of his delight
upon hearing it quoted by a minister in a sermon, though he was disappointed when no member of
the congregation could identify the source.[1] Not long after Longfellow's death, biographer Eric S.
Robertson noted, "The 'Psalm of Life,' great poem or not, went straight to the hearts of the people,
and found an echoing shout in their midst. From the American pulpits, right and left, preachers talked
to the people about it, and it came to be sung as a hymn in churches."[16] The poem was widely
translated into a variety of languages, including Sanskrit.[1] Joseph Massel translated the poem, as
well as others from Longfellow's later collection Tales of a Wayside Inn, into Hebrew.[17]
Calhoun also notes that "A Psalm of Life" has become one of the most frequently memorized and
most ridiculed of English poems, with an ending reflecting "Victorian cheeriness at its
worst".[3] Modern critics have dismissed its "sugar-coated pill" promoting a false sense of
security.[13] One story has it that a man once approached Longfellow and told him that a worn, hand-
written copy of "A Psalm of Life" saved him from suicide.[18] Nevertheless, Longfellow scholar Robert
L. Gale referred to "A Psalm of Life" as "the most popular poem ever written in English".[1] Edwin
Arlington Robinson, an admirer of Longfellow's, likely was referring to this poem in his "Ballade by
the Fire" with his line, "Be up, my soul".[19] Despite Longfellow's dwindling reputation among modern
readers and critics, "A Psalm of Life" remains one of the few of his poems still anthologized.