A psalm of life（修辞学）

湖南科技大学外国语学院

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课程名称：英语修辞学论文题目：姓 名：班 级：学 号：学年学期：

A Stylistic Analysis of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Poem “A Psalm’ of Life”周文雅 教育英语三班 0912010611 2012-2013-1

A Stylistic Analysis of

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Poem

“A Psalm’ of Life”

Introduction

Longfellow has emerged as the most beloved American romanticism poet of the 19th century, even though his reputation diminished in the 20th century. Longfellow formed and promoted the American Romantic Literature, which is more stressed on emotion, faith and intuition than the form, to rebel against the formalism of the 18th century.

Longfellow produced a large number of poems in his life which strongly embodied the optimistic sentiment and the love that characterized the didacticism. Much of his work is categorized as lyric poetry, Longfellow experimented with many forms, including hexameter and free verse. His published poetry shows great versatility, using anapestic and trochaic forms, blank verse, heroic couplets, ballads and sonnets. He modeled his works on European works which center on the morality by insisting on the traditional meters, stanza forms, stereotyped metaphors and superficial symbolism. Many of his works helped shape the American character and its legacy.

Analysis

Longfellow’s poem “A Psalm’ of Life ” is undoubted the most remarkable work to him. When he wrote this poem, he still fighted for the loss of his first wife who had died in a disease. After a heartfelt conversation he had with his friend \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\the poet expresses not a empty grandiloquence but an active, positive, and optimistic attitude towards life. He praises the optimistic feelings to counterattack the depressed feelings. He loves life, praises life, appreciates the beauty, the colorfulness and the wonderfulness of life. The poem is encouraging and inspiring.

I. At the Phonological Level 1. Meter

In this poem, Longfellow adopted a traditional meter---trochaic tetrameters .

Trochaic is most suitable feet for cheerful theme because they express so violent, emphatic, challenging and strong that the poem sounds inspiring, cheerful, emphatic, and powerful with the stressed syllable followed by the unstressed syllable. Meantime, there are some mutations in meter to strongen its inspiration. For example, the first

two feet in the fourth line of the first stanza and the first foot in the fourth line of the second stanza are iambic; the first foot in the third line of the sixth stanza is spondee. With all these changes in meter, the poem is more natural, lively and artistic. Furthermore, the combination of the quatrain and trochaic tetrameters have an unique, lively and readable sound effect.

2. Rhyme

Longfellow’s choice of rhymes went along with his conventional use of meter. The whole poem consists of nine stanzes of four lines. The end rhyme schemes are a -b - a - b, c - d - c - d, e - f- e - f, g - h - g - h, k - l- k -l, m - n - m - n, o - p - o - p, q- r - q - r, s- t - s - t, in which the ood lines are feminine rhymes expressing gentle, euphemism and the even lines are masculine rhymes showing power and speed. The poem is full of a quick and powerful rhyme by interlacing of these two rhymes.

3. Alliteration and assonance

Alliteration is the commonest figure of speech that repeats the initial consonants in a succession of words in the poem. For example, the first line of the first three stanzes use alliteration:“Tell me not, in a mournful numbers”, “Life is real, Life is earnest!”, “Not enjoyment, and not sorrow”. These three lines convey Longfellow’s opinion on the value of life in a serious and magnificent manner: there is no enjoyment and no sorrow in life but the reality. At the same time, the poem reads very fluent and rhythmed.

Assonance is not the popular figure of speech that repeats similar vowel sounds in a succession of words, but Longfellow uses it frequently in this poem. For example, “muffled drums”, “Let the dead past bury it is dead”, “Lives of great men all remind us”, “we make our lives sublime”, “take heart again” etc. These assonances not only connect the meaning of poem but also develope a catching rhyme.

II. At the Graphological Level 1. Capitalization

The tendency that Longfellow capitalized three words deliberately “Time, Future, Present” which related to the time aimed at giving additional meaning. From these words, “Time” can represent life , so “Future” and “Present” are life’s future dream and life’s present condition. A obvious contrast emerged in the readers mind and indicated a life philosophy--- be up and doing--- appreciating what you have now.

2. Punctuation

Through the use of exclamation in the poem, especially the sixth stanza, Longfellow expresses his thoughts and appeal to the reader to act immediately. What’s more, the sixth line is almost in the middle of the poem, the exclamation creates a climax of the poem---act in the living Present! Besides, the dashes slow down the

thought of readers and build a sublime environment before Longfellow explains the reason why life is an empty dream and calls to work hard promptly.

III. At the Semantic Level 1. Allusion

“For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem”, the

sentence comes from Roman allegory made by Roman allegorist Federice. Then, the poet quotes the sentence “Dust thou art, to dust returnest!” from the Bible “ For dust thou art. And into dust shalt thou be turned again.”. The poet points out the allusion of the sentence is not the soul, and he denies grave was not the last destination of one’s life. “Art is long, and time is fleeting” comes from “The life so short, the craft so long to learn” of Hippokrates von Kos’ motto. From a perspective of rhetoric, this sentence is an antithesis which warns that the life is short and do more meaningful thing.

2. Simile and metaphor

In the fifth stanze, the line, “In the bivouac of Life” is a metaphor. It compares

the life as the bivouac(营帐) to indicate the short and fierce life. The following line, “Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!” is a simile. It compares the people as the dumb and cattle to degrade the people without direction. The combination of metaphor and simile visualizes the struggling of life and simplify vividly the profound life philosophy.

3. Parallelism

Longfellow employed the brief but powerful parallelism to enhance momentum

and effect. For example, the parallelism lines answered what is life. “Life is real, Life is earnest”, “Not enjoyment, not sorrow”, “In the world’s broad field of battle, in the bivouac of Life”. Then, the parallelism lines also interpret what should we do in the life. “Still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait.”.

Conclusion

All in all, Longfellow is one of the most outstanding poet in the American Romanticism. As a popular poet, Longfellow hardly made any demand upon the intellectual powers of his audience, so that every idea expressed in n his poetry was easily grasped.His favorite forms such as the quatrain were always of the types that could attract ordinary people,such as a simple narrative whose story developed easily and gracefully along with pleasant rhymes and meters. Alliteration enhanced the poem’s popularity and spirits. Then, the capitalized noun, the exclamation and dash enrich the expression pattern. Last but not at least, the ingenious use of rhetorical devices such as allusion, simile and metaphor, parallelism made readers think deeply with auto-criticism. Most of his enormously popular poems are characterized by

arresting didacticism, which urges the reader to practice the simple obvious virtues, as exemplified by A Psalm’ of Life.The child- like simplicity and detachment from the deep and important problems contemporary life are perhaps the basic elements of Longfellow’s appeal to the common audience.

Appendix

A Psalm’ of Life

(What the Heart of the Yong Man Said to the Psalmist) Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!--- For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not that what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest! Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today.

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.

In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb,driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, how’er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act--- act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’er head!

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footsteps on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

Bibliography

He，Wei。2005. An Eternal Song of Life [J]. Journal of Zhongzhou University 4：58-59.

柳士军，2006，论朗费罗的诗歌特征 [J]. 西安文理学院学报（3）：16-19. 陶洁，美国文学选读，2011，[M]. 北京：高等教育出版社.

覃承华，潘建新，2006，解读朗费罗的《人生颂》[J]. 钦州学院学报（5）：34-36.

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, how’er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act--- act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’er head!

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footsteps on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

Bibliography

He，Wei。2005. An Eternal Song of Life [J]. Journal of Zhongzhou University 4：58-59.

柳士军，2006，论朗费罗的诗歌特征 [J]. 西安文理学院学报（3）：16-19. 陶洁，美国文学选读，2011，[M]. 北京：高等教育出版社.

覃承华，潘建新，2006，解读朗费罗的《人生颂》[J]. 钦州学院学报（5）：34-36.

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