Poem at start of PR for St Mary, Chiddingfold

[ElizabethHerts]

I thought you might enjoy the following poem, which I found at the front of the parish register for St Mary, Chiddingfold, Surrey, 1653 - 1801, when browsing on Ancestry. It certainly resonated with me:

My Parish Register Chest

In the scant compass of this iron chest
Lie the brief records of three hundred years,
The mute memorials of their smiles and tears;
here side by side ten generations rest,
As with Time’s iron hand together prest;
A catalogue of names all that appears –
Faded their joys, forgotten are their fears,
And all the eager hopes they once possest.
With mournful mind I turn the yellow pages,
Read the dim notice of a long-lost wedding,
How one was born, and overleaf was buried;
Thus swift and silent pass successive ages,
Like autumn trees their leaves for ever shedding,
Which into vast Eternity are hurried.

Richd Wilton