'Epitaph of Charles Irving'

Description

From a letter to Dr F. H. Deane (4 April 1842).

Creator

Dickens, Charles

Source

'To Dr F. H. Deane.' The Letters of Charles Dickens. The Pilgrim Edition. Edited by Madeline House, Graham Storey and Kathleen Tillotson. Volume 3 (1842-1843), p. 187. Oxford University Press, 1974.

Date

Type

Bibliographic Citation

Dickens, Charles. 'Epitaph of Charles Irving' (4 April 1842). Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1842-04-04_Epitaph_Charles_Irving.

Transcription

This is the Grave
of
A Little Child,
Whom God in his goodness
Called to a Bright Eternity,
When he was very young.
Hard as it is
For Human Affection
To reconcile itself
To Death,
In any shape;
(And most of all, perhaps,
At First,
In This)
His parents
Can even now believe
That it will be a consolation to them,
Throughout Their Lives,
And when they shall have grown old
And grey,
Always to think of him
As a Child,
In Heaven. 


“And Jesus called a little child unto
Him, and set him in the midst of them” 


He was the son of A    and M    Thornton.
Christened CHARLES IRVING
He was born on the 20th day of January 1841,
And he died on the 12th day of March 1842.
Having lived only Thirteen Months, and nine days.

Collection

Citation

Dickens, Charles, “'Epitaph of Charles Irving',” Dickens Search, accessed March 28, 2024, https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1842-04-04_Epitaph_Charles_Irving.