Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 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, Trust no future, howe'er pleasant; Heart within, and GOD o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime; And, departing, leave behind us Foot-prints on the sands of time. Foot-prints, that perhaps another, Let us then be up and doing, LONGFELLOW. GOD'S ACRE. I LIKE that ancient Saxon phrase which calls GOD's Acre! yes; that blessed name imparts Into its furrows shall we all be cast, In the sure faith that we shall rise again Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom, With that of flowers which ne'er bloomed on earth. With thy rude plowshare, Death, turn up the sod, And spread thy furrow for the seed we sow : This is the field and Acre of our GOD; This is the place where human harvests grow! LONGFELLOW. EXCELSIOR. THE shades of night were falling fast, His brow was sad; his eye beneath And like a silver clarion rung The accents of that unknown tongue, In happy homes he saw the light "Try not the pass," the old man said; "Dark lowers the tempest overhead; The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" And loud that clarion voice replied, Excelsior! "O stay," the maiden said, "and rest "Beware the pine tree's withered branch! Beware the awful avalanche!" This was the peasant's last good-night! A voice replied, far up the height, Excelsior! At break of day, as heavenward, A traveller, by the faithful hound, There, in the twilight cold and gray, LONGFELLOW. THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day : And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, The skipper he stood beside the helm, And watched how the veering flaw did blow Then up and spake an aged man, Who sailed the Spanish main, "I pray thee put into yonder port. For I fear a hurricane. |