Observations placeholder
Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry - A Psalm of Life
Identifier
000199
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – from The Poems of Longfellow [printed about 1875]
A Psalm of Life
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream
For the soul is dead that slumbers
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul
Not enjoyment and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today
Art is long and time is fleeting
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still like muffled drums are beating
Funeral marches to the grave
In the world's broad field of battle
In the bivouac of life
Be not like dumb driven cattle,
Be a hero of the strife
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant
Let the dead past bury its dead
Act – act in the living present
Heart within and God o'erhead
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time
Footprints, that perhaps another
Sailing o'er life's solemn main
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother
Seeing, shall take heart again
Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait