Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

At first laying down, as a fact fundamental,
That nothing with God can be accidental.

At first laying down, as a fact fundamental,
That nothing with God can be accidental.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
and read more

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.

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we read more

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame.

Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.

Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.

Write on your doors the saying wise and old,
"Be bold! be bold!" and everywhere--"Be bold;
Be read more

Write on your doors the saying wise and old,
"Be bold! be bold!" and everywhere--"Be bold;
Be not too bold!" Yet better the excess
That the defect; better the more than less;
Better like Hector in the field to die,
Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly.