Can you name this Longfellow poem?

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My great grandmother is on her death bed and loves a Longfellow poem with some of the following lines. Tell me not in mournful numbers Life is but an empty shell From dust we come to dust we returneth Life is real life is earnest The grave is not the end

I'm not sure that these are right, she is very difficult to understand as she has recently had a stroke that effects her speech. I would love to be able to read this to her before she passes. If you know the name of this poem please e-mail me jbollin@cctr.umkc.edu. Thank you in advance, john bollin

-- John Bollin (jbollin@cctr.umkc.edu), August 31, 1998

Answers

I think this might be what you are looking for. I appreciate it is quite a while since you asked the question, hope you found it already from some other source.

1 Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 2 Life is but an empty dream! -- 3 For the soul is dead that slumbers, 4 And things are not what they seem.

5 Life is real! Life is earnest! 6 And the grave is not its goal; 7 Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 8 Was not spoken of the soul.

9 Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 10 Is our destined end or way; 11 But to act, that each to-morrow 12 Find us farther than to-day.

13 Art is long, and Time is fleeting, 14 And our hearts, though stout and brave, 15 Still, like muffled drums, are beating 16 Funeral marches to the grave.

17 In the world's broad field of battle, 18 In the bivouac of Life, 19 Be not like dumb, driven cattle! 20 Be a hero in the strife!

21 Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! 22 Let the dead Past bury its dead! 23 Act, -- act in the living Present! 24 Heart within, and God o'erhead!

25 Lives of great men all remind us 26 We can make our lives sublime, 27 And, departing, leave behind us 28 Footprints on the sands of time;

29 Footprints, that perhaps another, 30 Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 31 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 32 Seeing, shall take heart again.

33 Let us, then, be up and doing, 34 With a heart for any fate; 35 Still achieving, still pursuing, 36 Learn to labor and to wait.

-- Prabal Ray (Prabal.Ray@uk.abnamro.com), January 01, 1999.


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