Today We Make the Poet's Words Our Own
Today We Make the Poet's Words Our Own - meaning Summary
Honoring the Faithful Dead
Longfellow uses a gentle, consoling voice to dedicate the poem to deceased loved ones, making the poet’s words a communal expression of remembrance. He portrays the dead not as mourned shadows but as figures "robed in sunshine," celebrating ordinary, faithful lives lived through steady work. The poem offers peace and a promise of reward, invoking a biblical maxim that faithfulness in small duties leads to greater, eternal recompense.
Read Complete AnalysesTo-day we make the poet's words our own, And utter them in plaintive undertone; Nor to the living only be they said, But to the other living called the dead, Whose dear, paternal images appear Not wrapped in gloom, but robed in sunshine here; Whose simple lives, complete and without flaw, Were part and parcel of great Nature's law; Who said not to their Lord, as if afraid, "Here is thy talent in a napkin laid,' But labored in their sphere, as men who live In the delight that work alone can give. Peace be to them; eternal peace and rest, And the fulfilment of the great behest: "Ye have been faithful over a few things, Over ten cities shall ye reign as kings."
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