Longfellow, Life and Truth

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of “the fireside poets,” a group of inspirational, reflective writers from the 1800s. Only Longfellow, among them, has a bust in “Poet’s Corner,” Westminster Abbey, London. Only Longfellow has a seated statue in Washington, another in “Longfellow Square,” Portland, Maine – his former home. On his birthday, February 27, his words still inspire.

In a funny twist, funny meaning respectful, whimsical, almost fancifully revering, another much-loved New England  poet – Robert Frost – named his anthology of poems about boyhood for one line in a Longfellow’s poem, “A Boy’s Will.”

The Longfellow poem from which Frost took the line is entitled “My Lost Youth,” with one line repeating: “A boy’s will is the wind’s will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”  The idea behind that poem is that we wonder in our youth about the unknown future, “the wind’s will.”

While that poem is – like many in Frost’s anthology – entertaining, inspiring, and reflective, it is also a very long Longfellow poem, beyond the scope of a column. That said, reviewing Longfellow poems – and looking around me today – one set of verses did grab me, “The Psalm of Life.”

This Longfellow poem, read on his birthday, is about a young man’s thoughts, as if he were talking with a Psalmist, one of the eight wise men who wrote the Psalms in the Bible.

Says Longfellow, in his own way – even older: Have hope, look forward, understand that living every day fully is the way to fulfill uncertain destiny. So step up, define each day, “act in the living present, Heart within, God overhead!” Be “still achieving, still pursuing…” since we are never done!

Longfellow’s poem, drawing on his early Maine days, goes like this:

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.

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 to-morrow

    Find us farther than to-day.

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, howe’er pleasant!

    Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

    Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

    We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

    Footprints 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.

Some will tell you “the fireside poets” were too filled with hope, lived with too much joy, pondered too often the majesty of life, and reflected too often on human strife. But not me, you will not hear that from me, about Longfellow, Frost, or any of those who – without our rereading them – are lost.

No, I am a believer in higher things, in trying to understand or quietly divine, on snowy days, blustery or still, “the wind’s will.” You see, Longfellow knew it, as Frost did it too, and so they taught: “A boy’s will is the wind’s will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”  Now, one added secret: Time does not define the inner us; we have them now. And that is a truth not often known to youth.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!