longfellows optimism in writing a psalm of life

“Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear, and with a manly heart.” This is a saying Longfellow read in Germany where his wife died. The words gave him hope for the future. It inspired him to want to write a series of psalms. The first one, “A Psalm of Life” written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, …

…Psalm of Life”. It encourages you to go out and accomplish things. It seems he felt a new resolve to live a more fulfilling life after his depression lifted. He shows through his poetry a renewed interest in moving away from the past that had troubled him. Something in his life gave him expectations and hope to live each day to the fullest and be confident the future would not revisit him with more misery.