---
title: Times and Seasons
description: Issues of 1844 to 1845.
authors:
  - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
editors:
  - Ebenezer Robinson
  - Don Carlos Smith
  - Smith, Joseph, Jr.
  - Taylor, John
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - newspaper
  - times-and-seasons
  - nauvoo
  - nineteenth-century
periodical: Times and Seasons
volume: 5
number: 22
published: 1844-12-01
publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor
publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois
language: en
type: article
reference: "“Lines written on the birth of the infant son of Mrs. Emma, widow of the later General Joseph Smith,” *Times and Seasons* 5, no. 22 (December 1, 1844): 735."
printed_title: Lines written on the birth of the infant son of Mrs. Emma, widow of the later General Joseph Smith.
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1844-12-01_5_22
  transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v5n22.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair)
  identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1844-12-01_5_22
start_page: 735
end_page: 735
curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1844 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States
  source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1844-12-01_5_22
  publication_year: 1844
---

# Lines written on the birth of the infant son of Mrs. Emma, widow of the later General Joseph Smith

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BY MISS ELIZA R. SNOW.

Sinless as celestial spirits- Not to share a father's fondness-

Lovely as a morning flow'r, Not to know its father's worth-

Comes the smiling infant stranger By the arm of persecution

In an evil-omen'd hour. 'Tis an orphan at its birth!

In an hour of lamentation- Smile, sweet babe! thou art unconscious

In a time-a season when Of thy great, untimely loss!

Zion's noblest sons are fallen, The broad stroke of thy bereavement,

By the hands of wicked men. Zion's pathway seem'd to cross!

In an hour when peace and safety Till in childhood thou had'st known him,

Have the civil banner fled- Had the age, thy father spar'd;

In a day when legal justice The endearment of remembrance,

Covers its dishonor'd head. Though thy life time thou had'st shar'd.

In an age when saints must suffer [suffer] Thou may'st draw from love and kindness

Without mercy or redress; All a mother can bestow;

Comes to meet a generation But alas! on earth, a father

That has made it fatherless. Thou art destin'd not to know!

Nauvoo, Nov. 24th, 1844.

Lines written on the death of Father Hancock, who died near the Motley Settlement, Hancock county, Ill., Oct. 1, 1844.