The Last Poem

Some people deviously come into our lives, crush our feelings, and then walk away as if nothing has happened. Someone has said, “Feelings don’t walk away. People do.” Another confessed, “My biggest mistake is thinking that people care for me as much as I do for them.” Annie R. Smith (1828–1855) was an extremely sweet and talented young lady. In 1851, she sent her poem “Fear Not, Little Flock” to James White.

He liked the poem so much that he not only published it in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald but also invited her to come to Rochester, New York, as a copy editor for that paper. There she fell in love with the handsome young preacher J. N. Andrews, who apparently had feelings for her too —but they never married.

In November 1855, suffering from tuberculosis, Annie returned to her home in West Wilton, New Hampshire. As the months passed, her strength sharply declined. On Tuesday morning, July 24, 1855, Annie wrote her last poem: Oh! shed not a tear o’er the spot where I sleep; For the living and not for the dead ye may weep; Why mourn for the weary who sweetly repose, Free in the grave from life’s burden and woes? Annie peacefully died two days later. On August 26, 1855, Ellen White wrote to J. N. Andrews, “I saw that you could do no better now than to marry Angeline... Annie’s disappointment cost her her life. I saw that you [John] were injudicious in her [Annie’s] case.” It is evident that although Andrews was no longer close to her when Annie’s life ended, she still had feelings for him. Don’t toy with the feelings of others. They may end up paying a heavy price! Despite all her emotional pain and physical suffering, Annie’s last poem confirms that she ended her days at peace with God. As so well expressed in some of her previous writings, she was looking forward to that glorious day when “God will wipe away every tear” from the eyes and from the hearts of His suffering children. What a blessed hope we have!