If I Should Die
If
I
should
die
and
leave
you
Be
not
like
the
others,
quick
undone
Who
keep
long
vigils
by
the
silent
dust
and
weep.
For
my
sake
turn
to
life
and
smile
Nerving
thy
heart
and
trembling
hand
to
comfort
weaker
souls
than
thee.
Complete
these
unfinished
tasks
of
mine
And
I
perchance
may
therein
comfort
thee.
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (born Dec. 26, 1716, London—died July 30, 1771, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.) English poet whose “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” is one of the best known of English lyric poems. Although his literary output was slight, he was the dominant poetic figure in the mid-18th century and a precursor of the Romantic movement.