A Thought of Life and Death

Representative Text

The cares of mortal life, how vain!
How empty every joy!
While grief, and weariness, and pain
The fainting mind employ.

But O, that nobler life on high,
To which my hopes aspire!
Does not prompt the frequent sigh,
And wake the warm desire?

When now and then a heavenly ray
Attracts my upward view,
Almost I hail the approach of day,
And bid the world adieu.

Those happy realms of joy and peace
Fain would my heart explore,
Where grief and pain for ever cease,
And I shall sin no more.

No darkness there shall cloud the eyes,
No languor seize the frame;
But ever active vigor rise
To feed the vital flame.

But ah!—a dreary vale between
Extends its awful gloom;
Fear spreads, to hide the distant scene,
The horrors of the tomb.

The thoughts of death's envenom'd dart,
The parting pangs I fear,
Alarm this timorous, fainting heart,
And still it lingers here.

O for the eye of faith divine,
To pierce beyond the grave!
To see that friend, and call him mine,
Whose arm is strong to save!

That friend who left his throne above,
Who met the tyrant's dart,
And (O, amazing power of love!)
Receiv'd it in his heart.

Here fix my soul, for life is here,
Light breaks amid the gloom;
Trust in the Saviour's love, nor fear
The horrors of the tomb.

Jesus, in thee alone I trust,
O tell me I am thine!
I yield this mortal frame to dust,
Eternal life is mine.

Source: Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose #68

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Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	The cares of mortal life, how vain!
Title:	A Thought of Life and Death
Author:	Anne Steele (1780)
Language:	English
Publication Date:	1780
Copyright:	Public Domain