Mark Twain Quote

[bturtle_17]

I think that Mark Twain wrote these beautiful words beginning with, "Warm summer sun shine kindly here..." in reference to the death of his daughter.
If anyone can verify this and provide me with the rest of the words, I would be very happy.

[Monique]

Warm summer sun shine kindly here;
Warm southern wind blow softly here;
Green sod above lie light, lie light --
Good night, dear heart, good night, good night.

Hi Turtle:

I love Mark Twain -- truly, madly and deeply. In fact, Mr. Clemen's ranks as the numero uno (deceased or otherwise) individual that I'd most like to share a bottle of red wine with.

The epitaph that you refer to was selected by Mark Twain for his daughter, Olivia Susan (Suzy) Clemens, who died August 18th, 1896 at the age of 24. The epitaph was written by the Australian poet, Robert Richardson.

After some internet investigation I learned that:

These lines at first were generally attributed to Clemens himself. When this was reported to him he ordered the name of the Australian poet, Robert Richardson, cut beneath them. The word "southern" in the original read "northern," as in Australia the warm wind is from the north. Richardson died in England in 1901.

I hope this helps.

-Monique

P.S.
If you like Mark Twain, check out Letters from the Earth.



[This message has been edited by Monique (edited 02-22-2001).]

[bturtle_17]

Monique,

Thank you so much! I heard the epitaph in one of my favorite episodes of the TV series, Quantum Leap, and thought it was beautiful, but I didn't have time to write it down and I never could tape it.
Thank you also for the information about the epitaph. It had been attributed to Mark Twain on the show, so I thought he wrote it. It's very interesting that an Australian poet wrote it. Now I'll have to look into Richardson.