If You Would Please Me

If you would please me when I've passed away
Let not your grief embitter you. Be brave;
Turn with full courage from my mounded grave
And smile upon the children at their play;
Let them make merry in their usual way;
Do not with sorrow those young lives enslave
Or steal from them the fleeting joys they crave;
Let not your grieving spoil their happy day.
Live on as you have lived these many years,
Still let your soul be gentle and be kind —
I never liked to see those eyes in tears!
Weep not too much that you must stay behind;
Share in the lives of others as you'd share,
If God had willed it still to leave me there.

poem by Edgar Albert Guest
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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