Psalm of Life

I saw a lovely video this morning in which a pastor from the United States rediscovered his family’s roots in Barbados. As a young man this poem had been quoted to him, and he returned again to its words in a cemetery where his ancestors were buried.

I must have studied this poem in college, for I can hear in my head the phrase “In the bivouac of Life” spoken by a pear shaped, slightly balding professor who had once been a Jesuit. No one knew why he had left the religious life, though what we did know was that he now had a wife and two young children, and he had benefited from the best classical education available - a small portion of which he was then sharing with us. And the man’s voice was like liquid honey! It is wonderful to hear poetry recited, but even more so when the person reciting has a trained voice.

I have often said that the important thing in life is to live in the present, and to make the most of it we can. Longfellow says it so eloquently: “Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, / Is our destined end or way ; / But to act, that each to-morrow, / Find us farther than to-day.” To act, that each tomorrow find us farther than today.

“Be not like dumb, driven cattle ! / Be a hero in the strife !” If only all children were given this advice, rather than being taught to simply follow rules and conform to standards….

A PSALM OF LIFE
WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST

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.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
First published in Knickerbocker Magazine, October 1838