University of Virginia Library

EPITAPHS.

ON A YOUTH.

Oh, that the icy touch of death should blight,
Just in the bloom of youth, a form so bright;
When smiling hope illumed a cultured mind,
Rich in endowments of the fairest kind!
By all respected, by the good approved,
By kindred hearts, how tenderly beloved!
Yet, cease to mourn—for virtue can not die—
The youth still lives in realms beyond the sky.

ON A WIFE AND MOTHER.

'T is filial love that consecrates this earth
To female virtue and maternal worth;
Sacred to one who filled the parts of life,
As daughter, sister, mother, friend, and wife.
And filled them well, through each successive stage,
From playful childhood to declining age;
Till mercy whispered to her soul—“Well done!
Enter to bliss, thou good and faithful one!”

AH! SEEK NOT READER.

Ah! seek not reader, worth like his to learn
From chiselled tablet, or a “storied urn;”
For who to senseless marble can impart
The faintest impress of an angel's heart?
The widowed hand which consecrates this stone,
Would make her love, not his perfections known;
For all a husband, parent, friend, should be,
All heaven approves, or man admires, was he.

ON AN INFANT.

Stain not this urn with sorrow's tear,
Nought but a blighted leaf is here;
The cherished flower, not fully blown,
Its opening beauties scarcely known,
Was severed from its earthly stem,
To deck an angel's diadem.

ON A CHARMING AND MUCH LAMENTED FEMALE.

This humble stone is meant to show
That Anna's vesture lies below;
But she who wore it—she we love,
Is in her bridal dress above.