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, and life is earnest
And the grave is not its home
Dust thou art, to dust returnest
Was not spoken of my soul

Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow
Is our destined end or way
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us further than to-day
But art is long, and time is fleeting
And acts, though stout and brave
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to our graves

Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait

In the world's broad field of battle
In the beaver work of life
Be not like dumb cattle driven
Be like heroes in the strife
Trust no future, however pleasant
Let the dead past bury its dead
Act, act in the living present
Heart within, and God overhead

Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait

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
Our 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 labour and to wait
Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait