Representation of Longfellow’s Personal Experience in His Poetry: Analytical Essay

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most popular poets in the 19th century. Born on February 27, 1807 in Portland. He has achieved a state of internationally prominence by composing a number of works that can be used to define the nature of the world and human kinds which made revolutionary contributions to American literacy history. Being a famous American poet, Longfellow always had an interest in using poetry to reveal the definition of life through well-constructed words. He’s most popular works such as “A Pslam Life”, and “The Arrow and the Song” are still used for educational purposes, studied by generations. The purpose of his poems are closely related to his own experiences. For example, he composed the poem “The Lost Youth” in 1856 when his childish imagination was sparked by the memories of the city that he grew up in and its past association with the navy battle between the United States and Britain brigs. His early schooling and the influence of his father’s book collection all contributes to his excessive interests in literature. This can be seen in both of the poems that I will introduce to you today.

The first poem I would like to explore today is a poem that I have mentioned earlier, one of Wadsworth’s most well-known and meaningful poems, called “A Pslam Life”. It is a poem that has direct associations with Longfellow’s personal experience. The poem was written in 1838, when the man decided to turn his own ambitions back to the world of poetry, expressing his feelings such as confusion and a sense of unbending towards what seems to be a catastrophe and encouraging his audience to face the problems that seems to be impossible to overcome. The poem starts with a young man compelling a psalmist when the elder spoke about how life is just an ‘empty dream’ , and all the passion and souls are no longer alive because they were always just a fantasy. In the poem, the young man is an optimistic. The speaker was introduced with these first couple of lines:

‘Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

“Life is but an empty dream”!

For the soul is dead that slumbers

And things are not what they seem.’ (Longfellow ll.1-4)

In these lines, the speaker points out the misinterpretation of life as a dream. This is because a dream is something untouchable in our subconscious minds, but life is not. In the next stanza, he insists the fact that life is real, something we are worth fighting for. Even though we will all eventually end up in a grave, however, that is not our goal of life. So far, we can see that

the poem is written in a form of quatrain rhyming scheme. This helps the poem flow almost like a song. We can see that Longfellow doesn’t use many fancy words, but somehow made each stanza speak out in its own way. This trend continues as the young man started to become a performer rather than just interacting with the elder. He was giving a speech stating how our journey is long but our life is short. Longfellow used personification in stanza 4, describing our hearts as ‘stout and brave’, which gives them human traits. He used metaphors in stanza 5, which contrasts a herd animal that symbolises a defenceless being, to a powerful war hero, relating the life journey to a broad battle field, convincing his audience to become a hero of this battle or in other words, to do something with ourselves instead of just living a pointless life which days repeats days.

The second poem that I would like to mention today is also directly associated with life and humankind, but more about the decisions that we take. It is called “The Arrow and the Song”. The poem was first published in 1845, when Longfellow had an eye injury that may have interfered with his writing. His wife, Fanny Longfellow assisted him with his writing and supported him. This incident got Henry Longfellow to understand the importance of loved ones and how they should be treated. At the same time, he published this short poem warning his audience and himself the power of words and how words can hurt and have consequences. This poem tells us that we should treat others with respectful words. In the first four lines, the poet uses imagery. The speaker was shooting an arrow to an undecided destination. The speaker then paints a picture of how the arrow quickly disappeared out of his sight which engages the audience to feel the speaker’s sense of confusion. In the next stanza, Longfellow used repetition of rhymes, indicating that the ‘arrow’ is symbolic in the poem, as well as the ‘song’. The ‘arrow’ is a protection, or a weapon that can hurt others, while the ‘song’ represents emotions. The last lines suggest that both the arrow and song landed on their target, even though the location is still not revealed. This poem is trying to tell its audience that everything has a purpose, and everything we do, good or bad, will result in somewhere that will eventually affect us. Therefore, we should put in effort to improve our lives and to be cautious of the words said and the actions taken.

At the time when the society was going through a period of disillusionment due to world wars. Longfellow’s poems were judged as offensive and disorders the thinking of the people and were alleged by later critics to be the cause of all the subjects that were misjudged and done wrong including the evasions of the ugly reality. But what Henry Longfellow’s poems actually are, is a combination of moral lessons and definitions of human nature. He uses his extraordinary literature skills with his unique experiences to compose all these poems that assists the generations to explore the purpose of life.