Life poem by henry van dy-ke Tnpsc

This poem is written by Henry Van Dy-ke. Henry Van Dy-ke lived between 1852 to 1933. He was an American poet. Henry Van Dy-ke served as Professor at Princeton University between 1899 to 1923 in the subject of English Literature.

He received many honours such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, etc.

Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;
Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
My heart will keep the courage of the quest,
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.

Summary

Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;

In this line, the poem asks the third person to live his life year after year, longer year or longer life. Then in the second line, the poem tells them he carries his life to look straight ahead and willingly (unreluctant). That is the poet is concerned with or planning for the future willingly.

Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear

In these, the poem tries to convey that he is not hurrying in life and also not deviating from the goal he set to achieve in his life. In the second line, the poet says that he is not going to feel or express sorrow or grief (mourne) about the things that disappear such as Material things, relationships etc.

This is because everything at some point in time will leave us, whether it is money, youth, friends, parents, wife, children etc.

In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
In these line the poet tries to convey, that he does not worry or feel grief about his past and also he does want get struck with fear of whats going to happen in the future(velis). That is the poet tries to convey that he is living happily in the present by not worrying about the past and fearing about the future.
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

In these lines, are the continuation of previous lines. That is without worrying about the past, or future, he is living his life with a happy heart that pays its consequences. He also says that he travels with a happy heart from his young days to a mature age with an expression of good wishes.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:

The poet compares life with travel. That the in the travel even there is an unexpected or unpleasant situation such as up and downs of the hill, or travelling through the rough or smooth path, the overall journey of life will be a happy one or happy life.

wind up – To bring to a conclusion. The informal meaning of ‘Wind Up’ is – to find yourself in an unexpected or unpleasant situation.

O’er – This is a variant form of ‘over‘.

Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,

In these lines, the poet says that he is still searching for the things that he had been searching for when he was a young kid. In the second the poet mentions the things that he had searched for during his childhoods days such as New friendship, high adventure and a crown (top of something, like a king of a country, a boss in the business etc).

My heart will keep the courage of the quest, 
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.
* * All the Notes in this blog, are referred from Tamil Nadu State Board Books and Samacheer Kalvi Books. Kindly check with the original Tamil Nadu state board books and Ncert Books.
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