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
Poet, classical scholar and Cambridge don (1716 – 1771)