Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order in stanza one, line one the poet assigns the description of mournful to the idea of numbers. This word was chosen to identify the audience: those who apparently go through life as though it is a chore.

The word mournful frames the feeling as though something was lost and captures the grief generated by that loss. Life is but an empty dream! states why there are so many sorrowful within the audience: if there is no aim higher than what one can gather on the earth then life itself has no purpose. The poet reveals his motivation in lines three through four of the first stanza: for the soul is dead that slumbers/and things are not what they seem. The soul found unawares, which is what is implied by the word use of slumbers , is most vulnerable to eternal death. Line four tells the audience that they must look beyond the surface of the world as well as beyond themselves.

An emphatic proclamation made in a way of a southern baptist preacher pleading with those on the path to destruction to turn to the life of the soul. And the grave is not its goal underlines the idea that life is something to be actively engaged in and not merely a journey to death. Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest, is referencing genesis and seems to throw this plea for life into a light that may speak to the religious up bringing of his audience. The poet makes a very important distinction in the following line, was not spoken of the soul. The creation of man is entirely unique from the rest of life on the earth because . The lord god formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul genesis . Stanza four brings forward the thought of futility: 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.

It is as though the poet wants to remind his audience that every moment, every heartbeat is bringing them closer to the inevitable end one's life time. In using the word fleeting the poet attempts to get across that time will just continue on without regard for the individual no matter how brave and firm one's heart might be. The poet is again underlining that life today is all one really has when faced with the flow of time. Stanza five, line 18 introduces a word that is unfamiliar in today's way of life: bivouac. This word defined in merriam webster as a temporary or casual shelter or lodging and by itself holds the idea of the entire poem which is that this life is temporary. The poet is telling his audience to be the hero of their own battles rather than a pawn in the battle of another with the words be not like the dumb, driven cattle!/ be a hero in the strife!.

Essay on Nature And Wildlife

Stanza six addresses the two possible positions of the audience and bring to them some very specific supplications: for those who are living for tomorrow the poet says, trust no future, howe'er pleasant! and for those who would lament the past, let the dead past bury its dead!. The poet does not leave the audience wondering what their response should be but plainly states, act, act in the living present! heart within, and god o'erhead! people can make what they will of their own lives and can follow the example of the great men that came before them, lives of great men all remind us/we can make our lives sublime. There is no secret that separates those who are great from those that pass through life without leaving an impression. It seems as though the poet is saying that those who are considered great took advantage of the opportunities of their present. Departing, leave behind us/footprints on the sand of time who provide encouragement not only to their generation, but for those in the generations to come footprints, that perhaps another,/sailing o'er life's solemn main,/a forlorn and shipwrecked brother,/seeing shall take heart again.

Most people consider it to be a timeless work of art, for one can still relate to the central theme. It was written in the romantic era of american literature, where salvation through nature was the primary theme for most romantic poets. Longfellow's unique and genius use of metaphors, similes, and personification give a psalm of life its fascinating greatness. Longfellow's use of figurative language allows the reader to envision his words as actions rather than pictures. The first sentence, tell me not in mournful numbers draws one into the poem by giving one a visualization of a group of gloomy, pessimistic people regarding life as a melancholy passing. It sets the mood and tone for the rest of the poem a dreary and gray, even tragic, tale. Henry wadsworth longfellow was born in portland, maine then still part of massachusetts on february 27, 1807, the second son in a family of eight children.

His father, stephen longfellow, was a prominent portland lawyer and later a member of congress. He heard sailors speaking spanish, french and german in the portland streets and liked stories set in foreign places: the arabian nights, robinson crusoe. After graduating from bowdoin college, longfellow studied modern languages in europe for three years, then returned to bowdoin to teach them. In 1831 he married mary storer potter of portland, a former classmate, and soon published his first book, a description of his travels called outre mer overseas .