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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  If I should Die To-night

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

If I should Die To-night

By Arabella (Belle) Eugenie Smith (1844–1916)

[Born in Litchfield, Ohio, 1844. Died, 1916.]

IF I should die to-night,

My friends would look upon my quiet face

Before they laid it in its resting-place,

And deem that death had left it almost fair;

And, laying snow-white flowers against my hair,

Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness,

And fold my hands with lingering caress,—

Poor hands, so empty and so cold to-night!

If I should die to-night,

My friends would call to mind with loving thought

Some kindly deed the icy hands had wrought,

Some gentle word the frozen lips had said,

Errands on which the willing feet had sped;

The memory of my selfishness and pride,

My hasty words, would all be put aside,

And so I should be loved and mourned to-night.

If I should die to-night,

Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me,

Recalling other days remorsefully;

The eyes that chill me with averted glance

Would look upon me as of yore, perchance,

And soften in the old familiar way,

For who could war with dumb, unconscious clay?

So I might rest, forgiven of all to-night.

Oh, friends! I pray to-night,

Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow:

The way is lonely, let me feel them now.

Think gently of me; I am travel-worn;

My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn.

Forgive, oh, hearts estranged, forgive, I plead!

When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need

The tenderness for which I long to-night.

The Christian Union, 18 June, 1873.