The Dying Boy Poem by Francis Duggan

Oh I will go to heaven so said the little boy
My mum tells me that I'll go there when my turn comes to die
And roses bloom in heaven and birds sing every day
And I will be in heaven I will be there by May.

And I'll not be sick in heaven in heaven far away
I'll be a happy healthy boy that's what my mummy say
And I'll have friends to play with and I'll know only joy
And I will be a happy boy in Land beyond the sky.

He slowly nodded off to sleep his mother by the bed
She stooped and kissed his thin and pale cheeks 'good night my love' she said
And as he slept he dreamt a dream of Land beyond the stars
And he was with God's angels a million miles from mars.

And he was in a garden where hosts of roses bloom
And air it scented sweetly of Nature's own perfume
And lamp of sun shone brightly on World that's ever young
And on the green and flowering trees a million songbirds sung.

And in this Land called Heaven in the heat of the day
In the cool shadow of the trees the lion with the lamb lay
And o'er the sunlit pastures God's angels take to wing
And to the music of the larks such joyful songs they sing.

And on a sunlit pathway he played there with his toys
And he had plenty company happy young girls and boys
And in God's sunlit garden the voice of laughter ring
In World beyond the Planets Land of eternal Spring.

Next morning the nurse found him a corpse there stiff and white
His soul had gone to heaven departed overnight
And in her notes the nurse she wrote at 6 a.m. today
I found young Johnny without life on this the first of May.