Poem for Golden Anniversary of David and Rosina Jane Stevens

Fifty years have come and vanished
Gliding down life’s turbid stream
With their changeful lights and shadows
Seeming almost like a dream.

Fifty years when looking forward
At the time how long it seems
Fifty years when looking backwards
Vanished like a dream of dreams.

Very beautiful the mornings
When the suns first ray of light
Wakens all the earth to gladness
With a radiance pure and bright.

But the time that speaketh ever
To our hearts with matchless power
Is when gazing on the splendor
Of the golden sunset hour.

Spring with tender leaves and blossoms
Is an ever welcome guest
And we sometimes almost fancy
That we love her coming best

But we know the year’s best treasures
Come to us in after days
When we garner up the harvest
In the Autumn’s golden days

And we thank our Heavenly Father
With a grateful heart today
That so much of joy and blessing
Has been yours along the way.

Fifty years of life together
In the sunshine and the rain
May the chain so long unbroken
Many added links obtain.

Mrs. Julia (Whitcher)Richardson

(Sister-in-law of Rosina Jane Stevens & wife of her brother Nathaniel Healy Richardson)

Interestingly, on the back of this two page poem with faded velvet ribbon, is another little section which says "last verse". Apparently the idea was not to add any sense of the inevitable end to this marriage and so cast a pall on the festivities of the day. The final section reads and is in a different handwriting ~

And the faithful strong affection
That hath made your life so bright.
Shall go with you to that country
Where there iso pain nor night.