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 tomorrowFind 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 in that strife!Trust no future, however pleasant,Let the dead Past bury it dead!Act!-act in the living Present!Heart within and god o’erhead!Lives of great men all remind usWe can make our lives sublimeAnd departing, leave behind usFootprints on the sands of time;Footprints, that perhaps another,Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,A forlorn and shipwrecked brotherSeeing, 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.A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , 1838
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