"The flowers in the meadow" (ca. 1832)

The flowers in the meadow,

The leaves on the tree,

The rushes by the river,

Are pictures of me.

In freshness and beauty,

This flower had its day,

It bloom'd for a season,

Then wither'd away.

[In Troy's Mount Ida Catholic Cemetery]

Many poems on old headstones have become illegible due to the small, cursive inscriptions having likewise wither'd away. Acid raid certainly hasn't helped.

The poems are not infrequently standards of some kind: by famous poets, so old as to be "traditional," or from published collections of such poems — they can nonetheless be moving.

The flower of the meadow,

The leaf on the tree,

The rush in the river,

Are emblems of me.

In freshness and beauty

They flourish a day;

I bloom'd for a season

Then wither'd away.

Mogridge, G[eorge]. The Churchyard Lyrist; consisting of Five Hundred Original Inscriptions to commemorate the Dead; with a suitable Selection of appropriate Texts of Scripture. London: Houlston and Son, 1832. 111,