Student Question

Why is life compared to a battlefield and a temporary camping ground in "A Psalm of Life"?

Quick answer:

In "A Psalm of Life," life is compared to a battlefield and a temporary camping ground, or bivouac, to highlight its challenges and transient nature. The battlefield metaphor underscores life's struggles and the potential for heroism, urging individuals to be proactive rather than passive. The bivouac symbolizes life's temporary state, suggesting we are always moving towards new challenges. This reflects both a religious view of life as temporary and the poet's advocacy for continuous progress and avoiding stagnation.

Expert Answers

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The fifth stanza of Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" exhorts the reader:
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!

The metaphor of the battlefield emphasizes the struggle and danger of life, but also the opportunity for heroism. The mention of cattle, if it were not couched as a separate simile, would constitute a mixed metaphor (why would cows be on a battlefield?), but the poet merely reminds us not to be like cattle, by which he presumably means the sort of soldiers who are driven unwillingly to the field and then serve as cannon-fodder, rather than seizing the initiative like a hero.

Life is described as a bivouac, a temporary camp. This may be taken in the conventional religious manner (we are not here for long, our eternal home is above), but it also expresses the restless enthusiasm of the poet who has already told us that the grave is not the goal. Life ought to be a bivouac for us because we are always moving on to the next challenge. Stagnation is the greatest enemy.

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