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HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was the most-loved American poet of the nineteenth century. Author of such works as “Paul Revere’s Ride,” “Evangeline,” and “The Song of Hiawatha,” Longfellow entranced the world with his beautiful work, which often carried a bit of wisdom or a command to appreciate life’s beauty. In the “Psalm of Life,” Longfellow reminds us that our purpose is not in pursuing mere creature comforts, but in striving to make the world the way we want it. He tells us that in a world where nothing is promised, the only thing to do is to strive and pray, “life is earnest.”
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 to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
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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 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 labor and to wait.