The longest day of mortal life
Is sure to set in Death’s dark night
Farewell vain world, your joy deceive
Pure pleasures lie beyond the grave.
The beautiful poem found on the headstone for Moses Chapin (Aug. 24, 1712 – Nov. 3, 1793), my 5th great grandfather. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and died in Somers, Connecticut. His daughter Elizabeth Chapin Alfred (1766 – 1851) is my 4th great grandmother.
His second wife, Eleasabeth Dwight, has the same last two lines of the poem on her headstone:
Fare well vain world,
Thy joys deceive,
True pleasures live,
Beyond the grave.
According to Find-A-Grave, the carver of both headstones may have been Aaron Bliss.