StoryTitle("caps", "A Psalm of Life") ?>
SubTitle("caps", "What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist.") ?>
Psalm of Life," by Henry W. Longfellow (1807-82), is like a
treasure laid up in heaven. It should be learned for its future value
to the child, not necessarily because the child likes it. Its value will
dawn on him.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Tell me not, in mournful numbers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Life is but an empty dream!—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the soul is dead that slumbers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And things are not what they seem.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Life is real! Life is earnest!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the grave is not its goal;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Dust thou art, to dust returnest,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was not spoken of the soul.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Is our destined end or way;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But to act, that each to-morrow", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Find us farther than to-day.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Art is long, and Time is fleeting,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And our hearts, though stout and brave,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Still, like muffled drums, are beating", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Funeral marches to the grave.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the world's broad field of battle,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In the bivouac of Life,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Be not like dumb, driven cattle!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Be a hero in the strife!", "") ?>
PagePoem(219, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Let the dead Past bury its dead!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Act,—act in the living Present!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Heart within, and God o'erhead!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lives of great men all remind us", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "We can make our lives sublime,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, departing, leave behind us", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Footprints on the sands of time;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Footprints, that perhaps another,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Sailing o'er life's solemn main,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Seeing, shall take heart again.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Let us, then, be up and doing,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With a heart for any fate;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Still achieving, still pursuing,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Learn to labour and to wait.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Henry W. Longfellow.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>