Does Henry Wadsworth Longfellow perceive life with an optimistic or pessimistic point of view? Does he value life and see its worth, even after death? Life is usually viewed as a birth into the world, which eventually leads to death (a sudden end). The time between birth and death is a time for people to develop, grow, learn, and gain a solid, and perhaps a positive perspective of life. "A Psalm of Life" seems to take a pessimistic point of view of life and its worth, yet through thorough reading, one may find Longfellow's message containing an optimistic outlook of life.

Longfellow's remarkable use of flowing words and vague descriptions allows one to relate to the poem's secluded meaning. Perhaps this meaning is that life has a purpose. "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow/ Is our destined way/ But to act that each tomorrow/ Finds us farther than today...