Psalm of Life

  Longfellow's piece, "Psalm of Life," is as relevant today as it was when it was first written for many reasons. Longfellow talks about acting in the present, and that's how many young people think now. Many people don’t like dwelling past and overthinking what they did, instead they like the idea that you can only change the present and that you have to bury the past, as Longfellow says in his own words, and live in the moment. He touches on the idea that you can make what you want of your life and that you leave your own footstep on this world. That is a very common thought in these days. I think that in this poem, he touches on trite ideas, but I do not think that he is trite himself in this poem. I think he is spreading very good ideas in this poem and that he has very good ways of explaining common concepts. I think he simplifies everything and basically says that you can choose how to live your life, which is very different from the way that the age of faith authors wrote. I think that he had a refreshing point of view. It is like his other poems because he always has a positive view and focuses more on the future than the past like In the “The Tide Rises. The Tide Falls” he talks about the traveller returning in the future and he talks about how it’s always a new day.