Anurag asked 8 years ago
Why has the poet compared heart to ‘muffled drums’ in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem ‘A Psalm Of Life’?
The poet uses a simile to compare our heart beat to the beat of the muffled drums on funeral marches. The drums that are beaten are covered with wet cloth so as to minimize the sound and make it suitable for the sad occasion. The poet makes such a comparison because just as with every beat of the drum, the dead body moves towards the grave, with every beat of our heart we move a little closer to our death.
In the poem A Psalm of Life the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow emphasizes the need to utilize our time for the sake of mankind. According to the poet our hearts are brave and stout at some point of times. But we all fear death and our heart beats like a drum when we realize that Death is certainly coming our way bit by bit. Longfellow compares this situation of our heart to the beating of the clothed drums at the funeral marches to the grave. Here the message is that we should utilize our limited time span to the fullest instead of wasting it in the thought of death or other such thing. Moreover, we have to overcome all fears and win this battle of life.
In the poem A Psalm of Life the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow emphasizes the need to utilize our time for the sake of mankind. Poet campares heart to mufled drum as drum was beaten when dead body goes to grave in the same way our heart beats bring us closer to our death