A Poem From Great Great Grandfather

My great-great grandfather, Charles E. Simms, wrote this poem after the death of his son, Cecil James Simms.  The child allegedly died from measles. Grandfather Simms was a traveling preacher and teacher.

Untitled Poem
Charles E. Simms

 

Returning once unto my home

Along a muddy way

The path that through the fields did come

I took that fatal day.

 

Near by a neighbor farmhouse stood

I, weary, sad, thought best

to stop with them, partake of food,

and gain a little rest.

 

Fate lays her hand in silent state

Unwarned on all of earth

Regardless of the small or great,

Or those of noble birth

 

Fate, her silent stroke fell on me

I, measles did inhale,

The billows of life's troubled sea

Rose by the stirring gale.

 

There was a flower in my home,

A darling little boy;

No dearer object there could come,

This precious little toy.

 

I used to take my darling son

When near the close of day

The busy cares then being done

And sing in joyful lay(?)

 

"I never will cease to love him

My, Jimmy, my Jimmy!

I will never cease to love him

He's done so much for me."

 

But when the sickness seized this flower,

It drooping, withered, died.

We strove to save it from that feover;

It perished by our side.

 

We sadly laid him in the grave

To wait that coming day:

One by one the Savior gathers,

choicest flowers rich, and rare,

He'll transplant them in his garden,

They will bloom forever there.

 

 

Here are the original documents. They are hard to read, and I suppose if you're a younger person who can't read cursive writing, you can't read them at all.