Littell's Living Age/Volume 170/Issue 2201/To Friends after Death

by Emily Charlotte de Burgh

She who is gone, to you, dear friends,
     One last, and ling'ring word would say,
This greeting in affection sends,
     And bids you think of her to-day.

Not as of one who seldom erred,
     (God knows, alas! it was not so!)
Who right to wrong at once preferred,
     And sought the truth alone to know;

But one too often known to fail,
     From Wisdom's teaching to depart,
A wayward, rash, unruly, frail,
     Yet oh! believe, a loving heart.

Men saw her errors, God her pain,
     He watched her strive, he heard her sigh,
He took her to his arms again,
     In rest and safety there to lie.