Serious Reflections
by
My life is embittered with cares,
The reason to me is quite plain;
I have caused many sighs and sad tears,
To her I shall ne’er see again.
She is fled from my presence above,
I shortened her days in this life;
To share true angelical love,
She is free’d from all pain care and stife.
How could I the dictates disdain,
Of a parent so kind and so just;
Or give her sweet bosom such pain,
She is happy, I hope and I trust.
That God who is setting on high,
Have planted remorse in my heart;
Its pangs I shall feel till I die,
May I then from my troubles depart.
Repent oft she cried ere too late,
To her precepts I did not attend;
My consience pronounce me ingrate,
To disdain such advice from a friend.
Such a friend I shall ne’er more attain.
To me she was always sincere;
I hope I shall meet her again.
When I’m summoned on high to appear
May repentance atone for the past,
And cleanse me from every stain;
May the tears of sincerity last,
That my parent I do meet again.
Sometimes I revisit the spot,
Where my parent was used for to dwell;
I sigh when I enter the cot,
Where I bade the lov’d object farewell,
Ere death had releaved her from pain,
I pray’d that her son she’d forgive;
She implor’d me from vice to abstain,
And in future more pious to live.
Scarce had I her blessing received,
And had faintly sigh’d out an adieu;
When I found her from troubles reliev’d,
While mine where arising anew.
Emotion of grief tears my heart,
More painful then e’er felt before;
When compell’d from her tomb to depart,
Her loss I shall daily deplore.