Life's Purpose
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 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.
Lives of great men all
remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Let us then be up and
doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.