Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 2:10 PM EST

I dunno . . . it make my brain hurt . . .

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 3:20 PM EST

I think this is saying life is what we make it. You can choose your own path. In the lines "With a heart for any fate" (34) and "Still achieving, still pursuing" (35) it states that our own destiny is in our hands and we should try to make our lives the best we possibly can. In the other line "Footprints, that perhaps another," (29) and "Seeing, shall take heart again" (31) means even if something wasnt our direct experience we can still learn from it.
P.S. Uh yeah..and slim I'd get that brian checked out if I were you....

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 4:12 PM EST

I believe Longfellow's main point with this poem is to live life to the fullest and not have any regrets. When he says, "Act,---act in the living present!" (27), I believe he is saying we should not dwell on the past, but we should live for the present time. He says, "Life is real! Life is earnest!" (5) and I believe he means life is something very real and exciting and we must treat it as such.

We can apply this to our lives by not having any regrets and not living in the past. We can not worry about yesterday or tomorrow, just worry about today.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 4:46 PM EST

I think that this poem is basically saying to live in the present. Don't look back on the past and regret anything, but live life for tomorrow. Don't just sit back and follow the crowd either:"Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!"(19,20) Live your own life and live it to the fullest. I think that personally in my life I can use this poem as a reminder to just let things go, have no regrets, and be unique because if everyone always did the same thing, nothing new would ever happen.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 4:51 PM EST

I think that Longfellow's main point in this poem is to live life to the fullest. Don't hold yourself back at all, get the most out of life that you can. Also, don't follow the crowd, be an individual, "Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!" (19-20). He also mentions the past and the future, but says, "Act,-act in the living Present!" (23).

Personally, I thought that this poem was very good. The parts that seemed to really stand out to me were the beginning and the part about footprints. When he says, "Life is but an empty dream!" (2), that reminded me of Mark Twain and how in the ending of The Mysterious Stranger he told us that life was just a dream. I personally agree more with Longfellow. The part that he said about footprints, "And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;" (26-27) was also really meaningful to me. When I read these lines, I thought about my favorite verse from the Bible. It also shows how we are supposed to do the best we can and be examples for future generations.

To apply this poem to my life, I think just take the message to heart and try to do as much of it as I can. I think it's important to try and live life to the fullest and learn as much as you can along the way. I also think that it's important to remember the past and learn from it, but not live in it. The same goes with the future, you can look to it and plan for it, but live in the present. The biggest thing that I can try and apply to my life from this poem is the footprints part. I think to just remember that everything I do goes into history and people can look back and see what I did. So, just try to do everything the best I can and be a good person, so that when people look back I can be proud of how I acted and a good example to others.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 6:19 PM EST

I think his main point is to live life to the fullest, and don't get stuck on something in the past. Going along with this, I think he means to sort of "grow" each day from what you learn, so you don't make the same mistakes again. For this he says "But to act, that each tomorrow/Find us farther than today" (11-12). Another thing that hit me was "Be not dumb, driven cattle!/Be a hero in the strife!" (19-20). I think that means to be a leader even if it may not be the easiest way out, instead of just following the crowd.

The poem also talks about living life in the present, and not getting your plans too far out ahead of yourself, no matter how good it seems, because something can easily change. The last major thing I caught was "Lives of great men all remind us/We can make our lives sublime" (25/26). This kind of says that if we really try, we can be thought of highly by future generations.

I think a good way to apply this to life is to just take each day as it comes, learning from the past, and not being to worried about what is ahead.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 8:19 PM EST

The main part in this poem is basically what everyone else said and thats to live life to the fullest and not to look back on what you did because that can sometime come back to bit you in the butt. But if you learn from it and not dwell on it its alright. And that everyday is a new day to start off fresh like in this part "But to act, that each tomorrow/Find us farther than today." (11-12). I like that little segment of the poem.

I guess the most meaningful part in the poem is where Longfellow is talking about learning from the past but not dwelling on it a lot, because if you just keep looking behind you, you are never going to see the great things you might achieve from learning about that mistake you made in the past. Also by looking on what other people have done in the past and growing off of what they have achieved can make our lives better like in this part of the poem "Lives of great men all remind us/We can make our lives sublime," (25-26)

I guess how i can apply this poem to my life could be just not to worry about the mistakes i made on past tests or whatever in school but to try harder the next time and not to do it again or else my grade will suck.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - 8:37 PM EST

I already commented but I guess I will again. I do believe he is telling us to live our lives to fullest regardless of little things in our life and to always be positive.
P.S I did get my brain checked jill

Wednesday, 15 March 2006 - 10:53 PM EST

Seize the day! Live your life to the fullest! Don't allow the inside of you to die when you haven't even lived yet. Our life is what we make of it. Each and every day we should strive to make more and more progress than yesterday. We must listen to our hearts, and break free from the typical crowd. "Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife(19-20)!" Many of us lose site of our own personal morals, and are blinded by what we think the popularity's morals are. As i said earlier in my letter this week, we are cowards to ourselves if we go against our hearts to avoid being looked at as a coward by the crowd. Though we often doubt our capabilities, we need to look at the examples given by the great leaders of yesterday and today, and know we can follow in their footstoops as a great leader for even possibly tomorrow if we put our minds to it. "Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time (21-24)."