Kirby, Mary R. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Title

Kirby, Mary R. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Creator

Kirby, Mary R

Contributor

Post, Amy Kirby, 1802-1889

Date

1848-01-17

Description

Handwritten letter from Mary R Kirby to Amy Kirby Post, January 17, 1848.

Is Part Of

Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Rights

The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Identifier

701

Location

Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Transcription

(Page 1)

On the Decease of Anna Backhouse

Only Daughter of the late Joseph John Gurney

On board the “Bull Dod” Steamer, in the Bay

of Palermo, first month 17. 1848 she went to this

Bay for

her health

From fair Sicilia’s fertiles [sic] Isle

Where summer breathes the balmiest breath

On whose majestic lava’d pile

Where desolation reigned ere while

Vineyards and orange gardens smile

I heard the voice of Death!

It called me to Palermo’s Bay

Where, anchor’d on the heaving brine

A noble ship I saw display

Her serried, sides in stern array

“Not peace nor love is mine.”

Yet on that deck in Death’s embrace

A youthful mother balmy lay

The parting smile was on her face

And peace and ^nor^ love mine ^and^ placid grace

And their [sic] in ^that^ unfitting place,

The spirit past away!

And

And hanging on his nurses neck

There too her blithe unconscious boy!

His loss how little did he seek

As sportive on the spacious deck

Not e’en his father’s grief could check

His artless baby joy

(Page 2)

For bathed in sorrow, he was there

Whoes [sic] heart to her’s in love was bound;

Alone he watched that form so fair

His dearest joy, his sweetest care: -

But none his agony could share,

His depth of anguish sound.-

Had sympathy then ceased to flow?

Or were the hearts around his steel’d?

No! all that courtesy could show

And all that kindness could bestow

TO soothe the stricken strangers woe,

Did that stern vessel yield.

Yet sad that thus thy course should end,

With war’s terrific thunder nigh;

A battle ship its shelter lend,

Warriors thy dying couch befriend

Mourner’s unknown thy bier attend!

“Twas a strange place to die!”

They gentle birth could it not plead?

Thy wealth which luxury might supply?

Had youth no power to intercede?

Thy loveliness thy peaceful creed?

For tranquil scenes in Death’s sad need

With all thy lov’d ones by!

Oh! how unlike that funeral throng

Which mourn’d thy honour’d parent dead!

A weeping city mov’d along,

And preacher’s voice, and poet’s song,

And orator’s mellifluous lounge,

The lamentation spread

(Page 3)

But did no heavenly beam appear

Athwart the darklin [sic] path thou trod?

Was not the Saviour’s spirit near

To strengthen, comfort, sweeten, cheer,

Dispel each doubt, each anxious fear

And fix thy hope on God?

Oh yes! the Christian’s ^faith^ was thine,

Emanuel’s power was felt to save:

Thou lean’d upon his arm divine,

Didst on His faithful breast recline,

To Him thy soul in peace resign,

And triumph ove o’er the grave!

Thus on the billow’s foaming crest

When rageing [sic] storms perplex the deep

The fabled Haleyon build her nest

And midst the tempest sinks to rest!

So thou upon thy Sauviour’s [sic] brest [sic]

Like Stephen “fell asleep”

Then mourn not that the mouldring [sic] dust

Beneath a foreign turft [sic] may lie-

Since this, the reverent humble trust

That safe where every storm is hush’d

Her spirit’s number’d with the just

Whose record is on high!

London Friend

Think I grow more and more fond of poetry M Kirby

to my daughters

(Page 4)

[Text in center of page, upside down]

AP & ILH

Tags

Personal

Collection

D.93 Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Citation

Kirby, Mary R, “Kirby, Mary R. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed November 25, 2024, https://rclomeka2.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/2993.

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