If I Should Die

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



If I should die, how kind you all would grow!
In that strange hour I would not have one foe.
There are no words too beautiful to say
Of one who goes forevermore away
Across that ebbing tide which has no flow.
With what new lustre my good deeds would glow!
If faults were mine, no one would call them so,
Or speak of me in aught but praise that day,
If I should die.
Ah, friends! before my listening ear lies low,
While I can hear and understand, bestow
That gentle treatment and fond love, I pray,
The lustre of whose late though radiant way
Would gild my grave with mocking light, I know,
If I should die.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 08, 2023

36 sec read
92

Quick analysis:

Scheme aabbaaabCaabbaC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 600
Words 121
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

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