A Psalm of Life

My Dear Rishi,

I enjoyed our conversatin on 13th morning for about 40 minutes.  You were full of life, we talked about your school, your freinds and the best part was you were imitating different animals especially the Asiatic Gibbon, you remembered from the time we visited in Singapore Zoo

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is one of my favourite poets. His poetry and his writing has influenced my life. One of his poems I love reading  is called, "A Psalm of Life". This poem became so famous it was translated into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Sanskrit. I personally like this poem as its message is full of  faith and hope. This poem has helped me alot in the past five years. Hope, you also find this poem insprirational as many in this world.

 

 

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 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 tomorrow

Find us farther than today.

 

Art is long, 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.

 

Rishi, this poem was quoted by Gandhi and one of his favourite line is (..."Things are not what they seem"). Hope poems like this guide you in your life.

 

 



 

With lots of love, hugs and kisses,

 

Love,

 

Daddy