A Psalm Of Life

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist

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 earnets!
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 to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

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 nit like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in 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.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . 1807-1882

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Poetry of Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
born 1807, died 1882

Poems

Excelsior
The Arrow And The Song
To An Old Danish Song-Book
Walter Von Der Vogelweide
To The Driving Cloud
The Warning
The Quadroon Girl
A Psalm Of Life
Maidenhood
Footsteps Of Angels
The Rainy Day
Resignation
The Open Window

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Psalm Of Life - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - poetry, poems

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