A Parting Poem

As school winds down and only two days remain, I have been reflecting on what life lesson I want my students to take away from this year. While I hope they have learned that Chinese is a fascinating language and a beautiful culture, I more importantly want them to understand that hard work trumps talent any day.  The Chinese language is challenging, but with hard work it comes easily. This translates well into everyday life, too! What may appear difficult and overwhelming simply requires diligence to overcome.

At any rate, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow agrees (and he says it so much better than I). So instead of my ramblings, here is his poem:

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful number,

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 to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.

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 sands 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. 

If poetry is not your thing, here's a clip from Sword in the Stone with some excellent lyrics towards the end of the song... but watch the entire thing because the whole song is pure genius.