Long and Time

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 bivwhack of life

be not like dumb driven cattle

be a hero in the strife

trust no future our pleasant

let the dead past bury its dead

act act in the living present

heart within and god overhead

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 or life's solemn mane

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 learn to wait

if you can keep your head when

all about you are losing theirs

and blaming it on you

if you can trust yourself when all men

doubt you but make allowance

for their doubting too