"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 art, to dust returnest, 

Wast not spoken of the soul.

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!

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, "A Psalm of Life"