I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

Here is another popular Longfellow poem... and just in time for the holidays. This poem is so popular in fact that it is has been turned into a Christmas carol. Longfellow starts this poem off with the joy of the holiday season. Everyone is happy and singing Christmas carols. Everyone is in a good mood. There is a peace circulating in the air. The refrain repeats, "Of peace on earth, good will to me." Then Longfellow comes back down to reality. He is clearly depressed with a heavy heart. There is no real peace on earth he claims. Evilness and despair are the product of mankind. Even though we are capable of doing good things, we are equally capable (and sometimes more inclined to) creating bad things. Suddenly, Longfellow has another epiphany and decides to end the poem on a more positive note. Surely there is a God out there who is alive and alert. Surely he will make sure that evildoers are punished and that the just will be rewarded. Of course, we all experience a heavy heart every now and then. During the holidays, the tendency for people to feel that gloom increases. In that regard, we can relate to this poem. We can try, as Longfellow does, to see the bright side of a dark situation. However, Longfellow's case was a little bit different. He wrote this poem right after the Civil War began. Of course he felt gloom, despair, and anxiety. Who else can say they personally experienced a time in which their fellow countrymen were fighting and killing each other? Of course Longfellow felt as there was no real peace. To make things even worse, he wrote this at a time when his wife had just died from severe burns. Yet he is still trying to look at the brighter, bigger picture.

A Psalm of Life

This famous Longfellow poem hones in on the topic of life and living. This poem is very relatable because life is a commonality found in all human beings. This is a very feel-good, positive, encouraging, and invigorating piece of work, and because of that, I can identify with its values and core message. Life is an amazing gift with many untapped potentials. Wasting it and watching it quickly pass by would be a sin. We cannot just sit around and wait for death to take us away. Life also should not be centered around our self-indulgence or personal sadness. Every second we are closer to death; this should give us a sense of urgency to make something meaningful out of our lives. We need to make our own destiny rather than allowing ourselves to be led around like sheep and cattle. Our focus should be solely on the present. We need focus on our next move. Worrying about the future and dwelling on the past does us more harm than good. In order to achieve in this life, we need to be patient and hardworking. As a Christian, I can easily follow along as the structure of this poem mimics some sort of extra chapter in the Book of Psalms. It is very easy to feel inspired and motivated by this Longfellow poem. As young kids we were always told by adults to "follow your dreams" and "never give up"; this Longfellow poem reiterates those points.