"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poetry reading)

This poem was first published in 1838 in Knickerbocker Magazine. Knickerbockers were the short trousers than boys wore: hence "knickerbocker glory" for a confection of ice-cream, fruit, syrup etc.

Let me recount a story that Frank Muir told impromptu about 35 years ago in a radio show called "My Word" to explain a well known saying.

"There was once a young English lady who fell in love with a Chinese midget who was a legend in his own country as a professional darts player. They married and returned to England to take up married life together. Li-Fee, which was the husband's name, hoped to continue his illustrious career in his new homeland, knowing that darts was a popular game in England.

Unfortunately he discovered that English darts were not the same as Chinese darts. Chinese darts were short and puffed through a blowpipe, whereas English darts were much bigger and thrown like spear. Li-Fee was much dismayed, because his hopes of a lucrative career were dashed.

His wife returned home to finding walking about disconsolately under the table. "Darling, " she said, "whatever is wrong?".

He replied, "Li-Fee is short, and dart is long".

The aphorism comes from Hippocrates about 400BC. "Ars longa, Vita brevis" although it's usually expressed the other way around "Life is short and Art is long".

I wasn't very familiar with this poem and I felt when reading it like the old lady who was taken to see Hamlet "It was very nice but it was full of quotations".

"Art is long and Time is fleeting" is obviously a quotation from Hippocrates but I'm not so sure that the rest of the familiar sayings didn't originate in this poem.

I have a soft spot for Longfellow. He's come in for much intellectual sneering, yet his poems at still strong and lively. His love for humanity is so touching. His life was idyllic at first, then became suddenly tragic when his wife died in a fire in spite of his heroic attempt to save her which caused him permanent injury and disfigurement. That's why he grew that big flowing beard.

If you're looking for the right attitude to life - look no further. Here it is.

The picture is of "footprints in the sands of time" made by dinosaurs long before any humans walked on earth. Dinosaurs lasted 150 million years. (Humans lasted only 3 million before they all died of their erroneous beliefs, leaving behind only large carbon footprints. )