Marching On: Metaphorical Poem

1.      Poem chosen: ‘Excelsior’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2.      Metaphor: Life is a difficult journey where you need determination to go against others suggestions to attempt to reach your goal.  The process of which may kill you, though at times death immortalizes you.

3.      People teach you that life’s hard, and you at times have to make hard decisions or give up things you want for something you want more.  ‘Western’ culture at times looks at life as a challenge, where you have to fight and strive for things you want, going against others suggestions or what is considered normal or ‘sane.’  Additionally, people who die in a manner considered tragic, being young and trying to accomplish something rather than giving up and doing what others say they should are often memorialized.  You often hear about people trying to ‘reach the pinnacle of their field’ or the phrase, ‘get rich or die trying’.  These both display the ideals expressed in this poem, that one should try to achieve things, even if it means risking something that’s important to you, and that life is a journey that is something like climbing up a mountain.  Looking at it culturally, it and gives more meaning to ideals like how America is considered by Americans to be built on people who felt like taking risks and going against what people were advising them to do.  It also is intertwined with phrases like ‘no pain, no gain’ and the ideal that one always has more work that can be done.