高級英語教材第五課

先讀課文﹕
Psalm of Life
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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.

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.
1) 生詞字典裡都能找到。
2) 詩人介紹﹕Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 每 March 24,
1882) was an American poet and educator. Longfellow was born in Portland,
Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and studied at Bowdoin College. After
spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at
Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night
(1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching
in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge,
 Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first
wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances
Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire.
After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and
focused on his translation. He died in 1882.
3) 此詩主要說人生是真實的﹐鼓勵人向前﹐積極進取。
4) 不管中英文詩﹐詩行不能太長﹐否則讀上去就沒有詩感。詩行要有輕重交替的節
奏感﹐否則就不能算詩。詩要有一定的意境﹐沒有意境的不能算詩。
5) 能背誦。
6) 有興趣者可以寫首英文詩﹐跟貼在此。本人會評改。