Living in the present and trying to accomplish as much as you can are the central ideas of the poem "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In the first stanza, Longfellow is stating that he does not want to hear in a sermon or from rhymes that he is living a life of hopes that will never be aquired. In," Tell me not . what they seem," Longfellow relays the idea that a person who allows his or her soul to sit stagnant throughout life is dead before death comes. He believes that a person needs to make the most out of life. In the second stanza, "And the grave is not its goal," is referring to Longfellow's belief that death is not the purpose of life, when instead, living life to its fullest is in fact the goal. Also, "Dust thou art . of the soul," is referring to the idea that when death comes, the body may return to the earth, but the soul lives on forever. The third stanza, "Not enjoyment . than to-day," is referring to Longfellow's idea that the purpose of life is neither enjoyment nor is it to be in solace; rather, it is to live each day and make it better than the one preceding. The fourth stanza speaks of people's hearts beating "like muffled drums . funeral marches to the grave." This is saying that life takes a long time to learn how to live it in an individual's best way and that time is passing so quickly that the hearts of people are simply working towards death. In contrast, the fifth stanza speaks of being a "hero in the strife," and not like "dumb, driven cattle." This is saying that people need not follow standards but make their own standards for their own lives. The sixth stanza speaks of the whole idea of living in the present in "Act -- act in the glorious present!" In the seventh stanza, Longfellow reminds us that it is a person who makes his or her own destiny in "Lives of great men . our lives sublime," and that the way to help this along is to leave the past behind us.