Poem to a lost child

Maybe I'm weird, but I like to read obituaries-- it's interesting to see what people say of others after they are gone.

I look at the ages of the deceased; today, most of the people listed in the obituaries/death notices die in their 70's, 80's, and 90's. There are a few in their 50's and 60's, but you usually don't see many for younger adults and fewer still for children.

This was not the case in centuries past, as old death notices and records confirm. In the 19th century, diseases and accidents claimed the lives of approximately one out of every five children before kindergarten age, and a couple could expect to have to bury at least one or two children. My maternal grandmother had a brother who died at the age of 4 from diphtheria.

In GenealogyBank, I came across a death notice for my 3rd great-grandfather Joshua PALMER II (15 Sep 1815 - 25 May 1864). This was great, since I hadn't had a confirmed date of death for him until now.

But reading further down in this same notice column was also listed a death notice for Lucy Ella, eight month-old baby daughter of David E. and Christina L.S. BROWN.

There was a poem composed for little Lucy Ella (by her parents, I assume) that just broke my heart. Transcription:

Ah! Yes, I do remember well that sad, sad parting day,
When by grim-death our little one from us was borne away!
The trees were all in blossom, and the rain it gently fell,
As we gathered 'round the tiny grave and sighed a long farewell.

Like a gleam of cheering sunshine, she came our hearts to glad,
And we dreamed not of the bitter hour, that left them, O, so sad;
We quaffed too freely of the cup of sweet enchanting joy,
And found that purest happiness was mixed with base alloy.

But though she's fled our earthly home and we no more may see
Her tiny form, we see again in innocence and glee;
Yet within our heartstrings her image is enshrined,
And we'll ne'er forget while life remains, that sweet angelic child.