19. Sharing a Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I have been moving, along with my essays, in a new direction in my writing – about values and how we know them and how we can incorporate them into our life. I have a lot more to say on this, but right now the words are not flowing. Rather than changing direction or sharing something I do not feel is ready, I’m going to share a poem that I have loved since my childhood. I was reminded of this when I took the journey back to my early years and found it among my papers. This was the only poem I ever memorized, and I can still recite from memory. Do you know it?

A Psalm of Life, 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 though 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 finds 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 dumb, like driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, howe’er present, 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 pursing, learn to labor and to wait.

So much about this poem resonates with me. It’s amazing to me that it was written in 1838 and still speaks so truly about modern experience. There are certainly those who still despair at life being empty and without meaning. It echoes stoic philosophy by reminding us that we will die. Yet, we can find meaning in focusing on our soul and on taking it “farther than today,” and in working to leave a path that others may find comfort in. It’s also telling us that it is up to us, each one of us, individually, to make that decision to continue, to pursue, to “be up and doing.”