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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 638

 
 
Helen Selina, Lady Dufferin Sheridan. (1807–1867) (continued)
 
6477
    I’m bidding you a long farewell,
  My Mary, kind and true,
But I’ll not forget you, darling,
  In the land I’m going to.
They say there’s bread and work for all,
  And the sun shines always there;
But I’ll not forget old Ireland,
  Were it fifty times as fair.
          Lament of the Irish Emigrant.
 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (1807–1882)
 
6478
    Look, then, into thine heart, and write! 1 
          Voices of the Night. Prelude.
6479
    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. 2 
          A Psalm of Life.
6480
    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.
          A Psalm of Life.
6481
    Art is long, and time is fleeting, 3 
  And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still like muffled drums are beating
  Funeral marches to the grave. 4 
          A Psalm of Life.
 
Note 1.
See Philip Sidney, page 34. [back]
Note 2.
Things are not always what they seem.—Phædrus: Fables, book iv. Fable 2. [back]
Note 3.
See Chaucer, page 6.
  Art is long, life is short.—Goethe: Wilhelm Meister, vii. 9. Hippocrates is supposed to have originated this saying which is better known in Latin: Ars longa, vita brevis est. [back]
Note 4.
Our lives are but our marches to the grave.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Humorous Lieutenant, act. iii. sc. 5. [back]