1807–1882
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The most widely read American poet of the nineteenth century and a Harvard professor of languages. He wrote "A Psalm of Life" and "The Village Blacksmith".
Every line we carry
Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.
- Act, that each tomorrow finds you farther than today.
Longfellow says the point of life is neither pleasure nor sorrow but movement. Each day should leave you a step ahead of the last. Measure yourself against yesterday, not against anyone else.
"A Psalm of Life" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Be up and doing, with a heart for any fate.
The final stanza tells you to get moving and be ready for whatever comes. You cannot control the outcome, only the readiness. Get up, start, and meet what comes.
"A Psalm of Life" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Learn to labor and to wait.
Work and patience belong together. You push, and then you let things grow. Most big results are long efforts followed by long waits.
"A Psalm of Life" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Trust no future. Let the dead past bury its dead. Act in the living present.
The future you are counting on may not come, and the past cannot be changed. Only now is open for action. Stop rehearsing and regretting; do the next thing today.
"A Psalm of Life" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Be not like dumb, driven cattle. Be a hero in the strife.
Longfellow pictures life as a battlefield and refuses to let you be herded across it. Drifting with the crowd is the default. Choose your fight and play your part in it.
"A Psalm of Life" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Leave behind you footprints on the sands of time.
Longfellow imagines a shipwrecked sailor seeing footprints and taking heart. What you leave may help someone you will never meet. Walk so the tracks are worth following.
"A Psalm of Life" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- While their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night.
The heights great people reach were not won in one leap. They were climbed in hours no one saw. The early morning and the late night are where the gap opens.
"The Ladder of St. Augustine" (Birds of Passage, 1858), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- We have not wings, we cannot soar; but we have feet to scale and climb.
There is no flying to the top. What we have is feet, and slow steps add up. The mountain that looks impossible is a staircase seen from far away.
"The Ladder of St. Augustine" (Birds of Passage, 1858), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Of our vices we can frame a ladder.
Longfellow takes a saying of Augustine: every fault you overcome becomes a rung to stand on. Your past mistakes are material, not a sentence. Climb on them.
"The Ladder of St. Augustine" (Birds of Passage, 1858), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Something attempted, something done, has earned a night's repose.
The blacksmith begins a task each morning and finishes it by night. That simple rhythm makes for honest sleep. End each day having started and finished one real thing.
"The Village Blacksmith" (Ballads and Other Poems, 1841), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Into each life some rain must fall.
Hard days are not a sign that something has gone uniquely wrong with you. They are the common fate of everyone. Expect some rain and keep walking.
"The Rainy Day" (Ballads and Other Poems, 1841), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.
The same poem holds the answer to the rain. A gray day does not cancel the sun; it only hides it. Hold on until the weather turns.
"The Rainy Day" (Ballads and Other Poems, 1841), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.
Longfellow does not pretend suffering is good. He says enduring it with strength is one of the finest things a person can do. When it hurts, stand up straight anyway.
"The Light of Stars" (Voices of the Night, 1839), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Only those who brave its dangers comprehend its mystery.
A helmsman answers someone who asks to learn his song. You cannot learn the sea from the beach. Paddle out; some things only make sense from inside the danger.
"The Secret of the Sea" (The Seaside and the Fireside, 1850), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Build each unseen part with care. The gods see everywhere.
Old builders finished the back of the carving as carefully as the front. Quality nobody sees is still quality. Do the hidden work well; you will know.
"The Builders" (The Seaside and the Fireside, 1850), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing.
On the ocean of life, Longfellow says, we often meet for a moment: a signal, a voice, then darkness again. Many people cross your path only once. Make the passing count.
"Elizabeth" (Tales of a Wayside Inn, Part Third, 1873), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)
- Age is opportunity no less than youth itself.
Longfellow wrote this in his late sixties for the fiftieth reunion of his college class. Getting older does not close the door; it changes the clothes opportunity wears. It is not too late to begin.
"Morituri Salutamus" (1875), Original English (Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1893)