Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-82) American poet, educator, and linguist. Autograph Poem Signed "Henry W. Longfellow" and dated, "October 28, 1858," 3½pp (2 pages front and back), 9x7". Very good; light toning and the ink is somewhat faded. All nine stanzas of the famous poem, "A Psalm of Life. What the Heart of the Young Man said to the Psalmist." In full:
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 or way,
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and 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 sand 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.
Estimated Value $4,000 - 6,000.
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