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.