Grand Haven Daily Tribune  March 22, 1898

A Husband’s Farewell.
—
BY DAVID FLETCHER HUNTON.
—
I am dying—surely dying!
Death’s cold hand is on my brow!
I can feel his icy fingers
Searching for my heart-strings, now!
Shadows dark are gath’ring ‘round me—
Daylight’s fading from my view;—
Come my friend, and sit beside me—
Listen to my last adieu!

If I’ve failed in life’s great battle—
Failed to win success, and fame;
All the world will bear me witness,
That no stain is on my name:—
Scandal cannot—nor detraction—
Mock me, when from hence I go;—
‘Twas no COMMON foe, that felled me—
‘Twas my wife, who struck the blow!

She for whom I left all others—
Left ambition’s grand highway;
Turned aside from friends, and duty,
And the hopes of life’s bright day:
Left them all, for her caresses—
For the sweet words she then said;
Left them, that upon her bosom,
I might ever rest my head.

Like the bird, of myth and story,
Flitting oft from tree to tree;—
She bid high for admiration,—
Loved it, more than home, and me!
Hence my heart is crushed and bleeding!
Hopes have perished—one by one—
Life’s high aims, have been defeated,
And its duties, left undone!

Like a tree, whose living branches,
Have, by force, been wrenched away—
Branch by branch, until dismembered,
Thus have I been torn asunder!
And left dying day by day:—
Thus, my heart’s been rent in twain!
‘Till each bleeding, quiv’ring tendril,
Writhes in throes of keenest pain!

It is strange, that courage fails me?
Strange I’m weary of this life?
Strange I faint beneath my burdens,
And am glad to end the strife?
No!  I’m glad to know I’m dying!
Glad to walk the earth no more!
Glad to know that I am going
To a fairer, brighter shore!

Over there, in Eden’s splendor,
When we “know as we have known”—
Will earth’s sorrows be forgotten,
When we meet and greet our own?
Will these cruel hearts, grow tender?
Will earth’s bitterness, be gone?
Will the souls, here wrenched asunder,
Be united—farther on?

Grand Haven, Mich.
March, A. D. 1898.