The lamp is burning low upon my table top
The snow is softly falling
The air is still in the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly calling.
If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
On this winter night with you. . . .
The fire is dying now, my lamp is growing dim
The shades of night are lifting
The morning light steals across my windowpane
Where webs of snow are drifting.
If I could only have you near, to breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
And to once again be with you
On this winter night with you.
Gordon Lightfoot
To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence.
To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow.
To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.
Oscar Wilde
It is now night
and all is silent.
I am here alone
and in silence
all my past friends
with all my relations
fall heavy on my mind.
They all are gone,
and I too must soon follow.
To be laid in the dust
in the silent grave
and there to be
forever forgotten
makes the cold chills
run over my whole body.
I have a hope beyond the grave.
That hope is that
when I am consigned
to my grave,
someone on the earth
might remember me.
From the Diary of Joseph Kemp
April 1, 1853
From The Tri-County Genealogical Society in Missouri. Found today while researching Cole Younger (a distant cousin), who died on this date in 1916. A fellow blogger once had this quote featured on their family history blog, stating that they first heard it on the BYU channel while watching the series, "Ancestors." I have not yet (as of 2009) found other references to a diary of a Joseph Kemp.
