English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
773. A Psalm of Life
What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the PsalmistT
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.