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A Psalm of Life - By H.W. Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's A Psalm of Life came to my attention when I was doing a review of poems for an inspirational poem collection. It is written in the form of a psalm you might find in the bible, and urges us to live life to the full.

It is a call to action - stop sleeping as life is meant to be lived, not slumbered. Get up and act, cause that is the meaning of living. We can be like cattle and go where everyone else goes, never paying attention as life is passing us by. Or we can wake up and notice that we too can live the life of heroes.

We are on this earth only for a fleeting moment. Learn to value your time, and make the now count. Take action, and make something of your life. It is your life and yours to live!

Psalm of Life - Be aware.
Source: Flickr - h-k-d

The Poem - 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 are, to dust thou 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 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 sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm 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.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



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