Oliver Wendell Holmes takes the high-minded earnestness of Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” and joyfully brings it down to the chicken coop. The speaker, addressing hens and roosters, insists that life isn’t about waiting passively inside the shell—no, “Egg thou art, and egg remainest” was never the motto for a hen. Time is short, so sharpen your bill, stop drumming on the inside of the egg, and get out into the great barnyard battle. The mood is pure comic mischief: the poem replaces Longfellow’s grave imagery with beaks, shells, and cattle, urging every chicken to be a rooster in the strife, to live so boldly that even when roasted it leaves behind “hen tracks on the sands of time.” Those tracks, the speaker says, might later cheer up some “forlorn and henpecked brother” drooping in the rain, giving him reason to crow again. The whole thing feels like a witty, affectionate elbow in the ribs to anyone who takes inspirational poetry too seriously.
A Parody on “A Psalm of Life” — Summary
Life is real, life is earnest, And the shell is not its pen – “Egg thou art, and egg remainest” Was not spoken of the hen.
Art is long and Time is fleeting, Be our bills then sharpened well, And not like muffled drums be beating On the inside of the shell.
In the world’s broad field of battle, In the great barnyard of life, Be not like those lazy cattle! Be a rooster in the strife!
Lives of roosters all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And when roasted, leave behind us, Hen tracks on the sands of time.
Hen tracks that perhaps another Chicken drooping in the rain, Some forlorn and henpecked brother, When he sees, shall crow again.