poem of the day

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 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 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 reminds 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 furlorn 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.

-- H. W. Longfellow

might just as well have been the heart of the young woman....