Longfellow's Psalm of Life: Action, not Existence, Precedes Essence Timothy Sexton College

Longfellow first published his poem “A Psalm of Life” in 1836 in the literary magazine The Knickerbocker. As one might intuit from the name of the publication, that magazine was New York-based and Yankee-centric. A much wider readership was reached two years later when the poem was included in the very first major published collection of Longfellow’s poetry, Voices in the Night.

The Second Great Awakening was only just beginning to crawl to an end and so the heavily religious content found a naturally receptive audience across the country. Even those not undergoing any particular spiritual awakening could find inspiration in the message that glorified the positive aspects religious faith in the hereafter while rejecting the depressive lamentations of a more apocalyptic interpretation of Biblical faith.

The Young Man is the speaker of the poem, who is attacking the Psalmist for writing sad poetry that transmits the message to readers that life is merely a phantasm and illusory lie. The Young Man turns to Biblical scripture about Adam returning to dust to prove his contention that the soul is immortal and therefore life is anything but meaningless. “Tell me not, in mournful numbers Life is but an empty dream!” are the opening...