'In Memory of my Dear Grandchild' (poem) written by Anne Bradstreet

Who deceased 20th June 1669, being three years and seven months old


With troubled heart and trembling hand I write,

The heavens have changed to sorrow my delight.

How oft with disappointment have I met,

When I on fading things my heart have set.

Experience might 'fore this have made me wise,

To value things according to their price.

Was ever stable joy yet found below?

Or perfect bliss without mixture of woe?

I knew that she was but as a withering flower,

That's here today, perhaps gone in an hour,

Like as a bubble, or the brttle glass.

Or like a shadow turning as it was.

More fool than I to look on that was lent

As if mine own, when thus impermanent.

Farewell dear child, thou n'er shall come to me,

But yet a while, and I shall go to thee;

Meanwhile my throbbing heart's cleered up with this:

Thou with thy Saviour art in endless bliss.

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