Hymn: Tell me not, in mournful numbers
- Title:
- First Line: Tell me not, in mournful numbers
- Hymnal: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.)
- Denomination: Unitarians and Universalists
- Publisher: Ticknor and Fields
- Publication Date: 1866
Author(s)
- Author Name: Henry W. Longfellow
- Born: 1807
- Died: 1882
- Gender: M
Full Text
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 and way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us further than to-day. Lives of true men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; Footprints which 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.