Psalm Of Life-GBMD

A Psalm of Life
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 dreams, 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.
–poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow–
~~~
My father, who was born in July, used to recite bits of this poem nearly everyday as I was growing up. Only recently was the source discovered and devoured. It speaks volumes about the choices all face with the act of living. To live is a verb, do it, don’t just watch and wait as life passes you by.
~
Garden Bloggers Muse Day is sponsored by the very talented Carolyn Gail of Sweet Home And Garden Chicago.
Frances

~ by fairegarden on July 1, 2009.