“The Ladder of St. Augustine” (1858)

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
__That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
__Beneath our feet each deed of shame!
All common things, each day’s events,
__That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
__Are rounds by which we may ascend.
The low desire, the base design,
__That makes another’s virtues less;
The revel of the ruddy wine,
__And all occasions of excess;
The longing for ignoble things;
__The strife for triumph more than truth;
The hardening of the heart, that brings
__Irreverence for the dreams of youth;
All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds,
__That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
__The action of the nobler will;—
All these must first be trampled down
__Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
__The right of eminent domain.
We have not wings, we cannot soar;
__But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
__The cloudy summits of our time.
The mighty pyramids of stone
__That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
__Are but gigantic flights of stairs.
The distant mountains, that uprear
__Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
__As we to higher levels rise.
The heights by great men reached and kept
__Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
__Were toiling upward in the night.
Standing on what too long we bore
__With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern—unseen before—
__A path to higher destinies.
Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
__As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
__To something nobler we attain.
 

Finally, we arrive at one such poem that gives the impression of the typical Longfellow verse – inspiring with lofty ideals that lift the spirit no matter what. The whole of this, if summarised, is a clarion call for rising to the occasion, employing symbols that are not at all imaginative but truths encountered through life. Beginning from what St. Augustine has preached in Christianity, the poet lays out the negative qualities of man, ultimately resulting in hindrances to his betterment by the usage of ‘longing for ignoble things’, ‘strife for triumph more than truth ‘and ‘all occasions of excess’. The magnificent imagery is taken good care of by ‘cloudy summits of our time’, ‘gigantic flights of stairs’ and ‘solid bastions to the skies’ – the predictable manner in which the poet makes very fine use of poetic devices. The clear message delivered is that we need to have patience to pursue our goals; for Rome was not built in a day.
“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.”
Moreover, this quatrain continues to be one of the most popular even today.