Tell me not, in mournful numbers, <br />Life is but an empty dream! - <br />For the soul is dead that slumbers, <br />And things are not what they seem. <br /> <br />Life is real! Life is earnest! <br />And the grave is not its goal; <br />Dust thou art, to dust returnest, <br />Was not spoken of the soul. <br /> <br />Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, <br />Is our destined end or way; <br />But to act, that each to-morrow <br />Find us farther than to-day. <br /> <br />Art is long, and Time is fleeting, <br />And our hearts, though stout and brave, <br />Still, like muffled drums, are beating <br />Funeral marches to the grave. <br /> <br />In the world's broad field of battle, <br />In the bivouac of Life, <br />Be not like dumb, driven cattle! <br />Be a hero in the strife! <br /> <br />Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! <br />Let the dead Past bury its dead! <br />Act, - act in the living Present! <br />Heart within, and God o'erhead! <br /> <br />Lives of great men all remind us <br />We can make our lives sublime, <br />And, departing, leave behind us <br />Footprints on the sands of time; <br /> <br />Footprints, that perhaps another, <br />Sailing o'er life's solemn main, <br />A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, <br />Seeing, shall take heart again. <br /> <br />Let us, then, be up and doing, <br />With a heart for any fate; <br />Still achieving, still pursuing, <br />Learn to labor and to wait.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/voices-of-the-night-a-psalm-of-life/
