A Psalm Of Life

"Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant (1817)

Like “A Psalm of Life,” this is an enduring, monumental expression of the Fireside Poets school of American poetry that found a wide and appreciative audience. Like Longfellow’s poem, Bryant’s work is a grand and magisterial contemplation on the reality of death and the need not to fear it but rather to use it as incentive to make the most of life.

"The Light of Stars" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1838)

Famously described by Longfellow himself as the “Psalm of Life, Part Two,” the poem picks up the same inspirational note. The poem uses imagery of the night sky and the planets to inspire readers to overcome life’s obstacles and to realize moments of triumph over adversities. Suffering, the poet acknowledges, is a given. What is crucial is how a person rises to that challenge.

"Excelsior" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1841)

The story of a heroic Alpine climber, carrying a flag that bears the single word “Excelsior” (Latin for “higher and higher”), who resists the comforts and conveniences of a remote mountain village to pursue a climb to the summit of a mountain, an intrepid journey that in the end costs him his life.