Poems (Merrill)/In Memory of Appey M. Merrill

by Clara A. Merrill

IN MEMORY OF APPEY M. MERRILL

Who Died Nov. 20th, 1903

Softly, sweetly she is sleeping
 Where the slender grasses wave;
Daisies bright, their vigil keeping
 O'er her calm and peaceful grave.
Naught can e'er disturb her slumber—
 Passed all pain—from sorrow free;
Gone from earth, to join the number
 O'er the silent, mystic sea.

Sweetly sleep, dear, gentle sister,
 Tranquil ever be thy rest,—
Yet, ah yet, how we have missed her—
 Gone from those she loved the best.
Gone from the home.—and o'er her pillow
 Strewn with flowers, so fair and white
Fell tears, and grief like surging billow
 Touched the heart with withering blight.

Time can ne'er efface our sadness—
 Still the heart's filled with despair
For the loved one, who in gladness
 Made the earth-home bright and fair.
Sad the way seems now, and lonely,
 As we journey day by day
Paths through which she wandered, only
 Scattering brightness o'er the way.

Memory points with beckoning finger
 Through the mists of long ago
To her songs, which sweetly linger
 In the hush of twilight's glow—
Points to words of comfort, spoken
 By those lips so good and true—
Tells of her love, so true, unbroken,
 And we weep in grief anew.

For the gentle hands lie folded,
 And the pure heart now is still;
And the brow, in beauty molded
 By the Hand of Death, so chill
Is now at rest.—Yet visions brightly
 Through the misty haze will bring
A joy, like whispered promise, lightly
 Wafted as on Zephyr's wing.

Visions of that promised splendor
 Of a mansion fair, on high;
Where, with welcome warm and tender
 She will greet us by and by.—
By and by—sweet hope, elating—
 When the Voice that bid dear Appey sleep
Shall call us forth, where she is waiting,
 Ne'er to part, no more to weep.