Longfellow 英美文学教案教学文稿

L o n g f e l l o w英美文

学教案

Unit 9 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Psalm of Life: What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist(1838)

Tell me not, in mournful numbers[1],

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers[2],

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[3],

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[4],

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums[5], are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac[6] 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[7];--

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[8] and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Frowde, Henry. The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, London: Oxford University of Press Wakehouse, 1893. 3.)

Notes

[1] numbers: meters, rhythms.

[2] slumber: sleep, doze, drowse.

[3] Dust thou art, to dust returnest: The author asserts that the soul will not die in an allusion to the Genesis 3:19 in the Old Testament, where God says to the fallen Adam, “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”, which means from none to none. [4] Art is long, and Time is fleeting: it originates from the first two lines of the Aphorismi by the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. It is a paraphrase of the familiar Latin translation Ars Longa, Vita brevis which reverses the order of the original lines. It means that life is short, but art is long.

[5] muffled drums: a quiet drum that is wrapped around by a towel. The author compares the human heartbeat to “muffled drums,” which implies that reminds us of the transient nature of life and each beat of our hearts carries us closer to death.

[6] bivouac: camp.

[7] Footprints on the sands of time: The author suggests the idea of a record of greatness by using a metaphor“footprints on the sands of time”which describes the mark that great individuals leave on history.

[8] be up: stand up.

Questions for discussion

1. What is the theme of the poem? Would the poem be considered a fireside poem?

2. Could you give us some examples of alliteration in the poem?

3. Which line best expresses t he speaker’s overall attitude toward life? Why?

它以一位年轻人的口吻表达了诗人对人生的见解，以及如何认识生命的时间性，并指出人生的目标、道路在于行动和不断的自我超越。