accidental death--Sue Ann Ellison in 1958 and Gary Canaday in 1960
That they are dead, -- They are just away.
With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand
They have wandered into an unknown land.
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since they linger there.
And we, O we, who with wildness yearn
For the old--time step and the glad return—
Think of them faring on, as dear
In the love of Heaven as the love of Here.
Mild and gentle as they were brave
To simple things:--Where the violets grew
Pure as the blue eyes they were likened to.
The touches of their hands have stayed
As reverently as their lips have prayed.
The little brown thrush that harshly chirred
Was as dear to them as the mockingbird.
And they pitied as much a man in pain
A writhing honey-bee wet with rain.
Think of them still as the same, we pray,
They are not dead--they are just--away
SUBSTITUTION
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence against which you dare not cry,
Aches round you like a strong disease and new—
What hope? What help? What music will undo
That silence to your sense? Not friendship's sigh,
Not reason's subtle count; not melody
Not songs of poets, not of nightingales,
Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress trees
To the clear moon; nor yet the spheric laws
Self-chanted, nor the angels' sweet All-hails,
Met in the smile of God: Nay, none of these,
Speak Thou, availing Christ!--and fill this pause.