"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poetry reading)

This poem was first published in 1838 in Knickerbocker Magazine. Knickerbockers were the short trousers than boys wore: hence "knickerbocker glory" for a confection of ice-cream, fruit, syrup etc.

Let me recount a story that Frank Muir told impromptu about 35 years ago in a radio show called "My Word" to explain a well known saying.

"There was once a young English lady who fell in love with a Chinese midget who was a legend in his own country as a professional darts player. They married and returned to England to take up married life together. Li-Fee, which was the husband's name, hoped to continue his illustrious career in his new homeland, knowing that darts was a popular game in England..

Unfortunately he discovered that English darts were not the same as Chinese darts. Chinese darts were short and puffed through a blowpipe, whereas English darts were much bigger and thrown like spear. Li-Fee was much dismayed, because his hopes of a lucrative career were dashed.

His wife returned home to finding walking about disconsolately under the table. "Darling, " she said, "whatever is wrong?".

He replied, "Li-Fee is short, and dart is long".

The aphorism comes from Hippocrates about 400BC. "Ars longa, Vita brevis" although it's usually expressed the other way around "Life is short and Art is long".

I wasn't very familiar with this poem and I felt when reading it like the old lady who was taken to see Hamlet "It was very nice but it was full of quotations".

"Art is long and Time is fleeting" is obviously a quotation from Hippocrates but I'm not so sure that the rest of the familiar sayings didn't originate in this poem.

I have a soft spot for Longfellow. He's come in for much intellectual sneering, yet his poems are still strong and lively. His love for humanity is so touching. His life was idyllic at first, then became suddenly tragic when his wife died in a fire in spite of his heroic attempt to save her which caused him permanent injury and disfigurement. That's why he grew that big flowing beard.

If you're looking for the right attitude to life - look no further. Here it is.

The picture is of "footprints in the sands of time" made by dinosaurs long before any humans walked on earth. Dinosaurs lasted 150 million years. Humans lasted only about 150 thousand years before they all died of their erroneous beliefs, leaving behind only large carbon footprints.

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• psalm
• life
• longfellow
• poem

[MrBillAMiller]

wow i guess hawkwind literaly ripped some of this off.

[SpokenVerse]

@MrBillAMiller I found this quotation on the web

"Buried in Hawkwind’s spaced out album Warrior on the Edge of Time is a stanza of Longfellow’s A Psalm of Life."

[globescape]

what does the "bivouac of life" mean?

[SpokenVerse]

A temporary halt on a journey, like setting up camp for the night.

[DBoYAcExX]

Wow.

[angelicsolace]

The beginning was starting to remind me of a Robert Service poem," Dreams Are Best". "If" by Kipling reminds me of this, too. They're all wonderful poems, though!

[natentreyable]

Wonderful!

[Praverb]

I wanted to Like the reading...your readings have actually made me appreciate poetry again. Before I started emceeing/rapping I was inspired by Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Strayed from the older poets and spent less time reading modern poems. Hip-Hop became my safe haven. Then I got tired of hip-hop and ventured back into the poetic realm. Thank you very much (time to start writing more poems). Thank You!

[Yanasoo]

one of my favorite poems <33 Thanks for sharing :)

[Piquarian]

Any chance of Longfellow's Sonnet 'The Cross of Snow', or 'The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls' ?

[kprasad]

you have a wonderful voice.. the visuals should be worked on..and this will be beyond inspiring.

[Rodriguez87]

This poem is like an antidote for depression. When I read it, I hear the voice of an old man counseling a young man against suicide.