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 gra!e is not its goal"
#ust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spo$en of the soul
%ot en&oyment, and not sorrow,
's our destined end or way"
But to a(t, that ea(h tomorrow
Find us farther than today
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and bra!e,
)till, li$e muffled drums, are beating
Funeral mar(hes to the gra!e
'n the world*s broad field of battle,
'n the bi!oua( of Life,
Be not li$e dumb, dri!en (attle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe*er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
A(t,--a(t in the li!ing Present!
Heart within, and +od o*erhead!
Li!es of great men all remind us
We (an ma$e our li!es sublime,
And, departing, lea!e behind us
Footprints on the sands of time"
Footprints, that perhaps another,
)ailing o*er life*s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwre($ed brother,
)eeing, shall ta$e heart again
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate"
)till a(hie!ing, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait
The story behind the psalm
(opied from ,Light from -any Lamps,
edited by Lillian .i(hler Watson
It was early morning. The bright sun streamed through the windows
of the Craigie house in Cambridge where George Washington had once
had his headquarters, and where a young Harvard professor
now lived. He lived, in fact, in the very room that Washington
had occupied. nd as he stood ga!ing out of the window at the
sloping lawn and the elms, he wondered if Washington might not have
stood here once feeling perhaps as he did""
unutterably lonely and de#ected.
The young man$s wife had died three years ago,
but he longed for her still. Time had not softened
his grief nor eased the torment of his memories.
He turned restlessly from the window
and wondered how to spend the time before brea%fast.
He was a poet too, this young professor&
but he had no heart for poetry these days.
He had no heart for anything, it seemed.
'ife had become an empty dream.
(ut this could not go on, he told himself)
He was letting the days slip by, nursing his despondency.
'ife was not an empty dream)
He must be up and doing.
'et the dead past bury its dead. . . .
*uddenly Henry Wadsworth 'ongfellow was writing
in a surge of inspiration, the lines coming almost
too quic%ly for his racing pen.
'ongfellow called his poem + ,salm of 'ife.+
He put it aside at first, unwilling to show it to anyone&
for as he later e-plained, +it was a voice from my inmost heart,
at a time when I was rallying from depression.+
(ut later he allowed it to be published . . .and it went
straight to the hearts of millions of people.
.o poem ever written became so well %nown so fast. It was
taught in schools, recited on the stage, discussed from
pulpit and lecture platform. It crossed the ocean, and spread
li%e wildfire through /ngland. It was translated into 0rench,
German, Italian, *panish, ,ortuguese, 1utch,
*wedish, 1anish""even *ans%rit) In China it was printed on a fan
and became immensely popular.
whole generation of school children grew up under the
influence of 'ongfellow$s +,salm.+ 2any prominent men later
ac%nowledged that influence with gratitude. Henry 0ord,
for e-ample, memori!ed it as a lad, and in later years often
said that the si-th and ninth stan!as came bac% to him all his life,
inspiring him to effort and achievement. 0irestone also freely
ac%nowledged his indebtedness to the poem,
as did many other famous men.
/dward (o% made a special visit to 'ongfellow
to tell him how much the last four lines meant to him.
/ven Gandhi, on the other side of the world, quoted a
favorite line from it #ust a few days before his death
3+....things are not what they seem+4.
The call to courage and action of a man emerging from a great
sorrow, + ,salm of 'ife+ is one of the best"loved and most
widely read poems in the world. Its lines are full of faith
and hope, its message clear and unmista%able. Its appeal is as
vital and timely now as it ever was& in a recent poll to
determine the nation$s favorite poem, it easily won first place.
0or over a hundred years + ,salm of 'ife+
has helped the weary, unhappy, and discouraged
to be +up and doing, with a heart for any fate.+
.o poem more richly deserves its place among the
inspirational classics of man%ind.