2nd+Individual+Example

=2nd Individual Example = ==== ====

A Psalm of Life
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 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 are, to dust thou returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today.

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 sand 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

Author's Purpose
A Psalm of life, written by Henry Wadswroth Longfellow, is a poem about the passing of life. After having lost his wife and expected baby in a tagic death, Longfellow was determined to let go of his past troubles and daily with his present life. His purpose for writing this poem was to help inspire himself and the reader to overcome the tragedy of losing someone they love and accepting that death is inescapable.

Longfellow goes on reciting that life does not last forever and death is a thing to be expected. The allusion Longfellow makes to the verse Genesis 3:19 " dust you are nd to dust you will return..." serves to further out his purpose to accept death as a part of life. With this allusion, Longfellow was able to prove that since the beginnings of time, death has been the destiny of all. However, to give hope to the reader that is in need of encouragement, he does include that "...dust thou art; to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul." speaks of the body coming to an end but not of the soul, for the soul will keep on living.

Works Cited __BibleGateway__. 1984. International Bible society. 4 Feb. 2009 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=.

Longfellow, Henry W. __The Complete Poetical Works of Longfellow__. , AL: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,, 1893.

M. Torres