If I should die, how kind you all would grow! <br />In that strange hour I would not have one foe. <br />There are no words too beautiful to say <br />Of one who goes forevermore away <br />Across that ebbing tide which has no flow. <br />With what new lustre my good deeds would glow! <br />If faults were mine, no one would call them so, <br />Or speak of me in aught but praise that day, <br />If I should die. <br />Ah, friends! before my listening ear lies low, <br />While I can hear and understand, bestow <br />That gentle treatment and fond love, I pray, <br />The lustre of whose late though radiant way <br />Would gild my grave with mocking light, I know, <br />If I should die.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-i-should-die-8/
