These are Funeral Poems (Epitaths) taken from graves at Sutcombe Church in Devon. It looks as though there was a trend for these around 1850.

Farewell wife and children dear,
You have lost a bosom friend,
I hope to meet you all again,
Where joys shall never end.

—-
We could not wish her back again
Her long bright race on earth is run
Our loss is her eternal gain
We weep but say God’s will is done
—-
Lights are from our household gone,
Voices we loved are stilled,
Places are vacant in our home,
Which never can be filled.

E.Westaway
—-
The lovely bud so young, so fair,
Called off by earthly doom,
Just came to show how sweet a flower,
In paradise could bloom.
—


Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
– for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth
(Boast not of tomorrow,
– for you don’t know what may happen today)

—-

So teach us to number our days
That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom
—-

In pain and sickness long I laid,
My flesh consumed, my lungs decayed,
I like a flower once did bloom,
Now lie mouldring in the tomb,

I’ve left a wife and child most dear,
Unto the God of Israel’s care
And I do trust that he will bless
The widow and the fatherless

This man died aged 27 – presumably of TB

—-
Death who dissolved our knot, we being dead,
Hath made the grave our second marriage bed,
Of death we need not therefore to explain,
For whom it parted hath joined again.

—-

Now we sleep together free from stife,
In hopes to wake to everlasting life,
Farewell dead children, live in peace and love,
And may we meet at God’s right hand above.

She died at aged 45, he died 40 years later aged 84

—-

Oh let my sudden doom,
A warning be to all,
Even while you bend over my tomb,
You may as quickly fall.
—-