Name: A Psalm of Life
Duration: P00H01M58S
Description: This is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was published in 1838. It was also printed in McGuffey Readers that were used to develop literacy in the 19th century.

A Psalm of Life

from Weird, Sordid, & Deadly But True Tales of America (1609 - 1906) by Peter Ellis

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This is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was published in 1838. It was also printed in McGuffey Readers that were used to develop literacy in the 19th century.

lyrics

12. A Psalm of Life (1838)
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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 to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

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 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

credits

from Weird, Sordid, & Deadly But True Tales of America (1609 - 1906), released January 29, 2015

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about

Peter Ellis Los Angeles, California

When not suffering from moral turpitude, morbid fixations, and delusions of grandeur, I am taking my coffee very seriously.

My favorite albums of 2014:

Ariel Pink's Pom Pom,
Luluc's Passerby, Real Estate's Atlas,
Stephen Malkmus' Wig Out at Jagbags, Pallbearer's Foundation of Burden,
Ty Segall's Manipulator,
and
J Mascis' Tied to a Star ... more

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