[ { "title": "Epitaph. Intended for Sir Isaac Newton, in Westminster Abbey.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ " ISAACUS NEWTONUS:", " QUEM IMMORTALEM", "TESTANTUR TEMPUS, NATURA, COELUM:", " MORTALEM", " HOC MARMOR FATETUR.", "", "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night", "God said, Let Newton be! and all was light." ], "linecount": "7" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on General Henry Withers, in Westminster Abbey, 1729.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Here, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind,", "Thy country's friend, but more of human kind.", "Oh, born to arms! oh, worth in youth approved!", "Oh, soft humanity, in age beloved!", "For thee the hardy veteran drops a tear,", "And the gay courtier feels the sigh sincere.", "Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove", "Thy martial spirit, or thy social love!", "Amidst corruption, luxury, and rage,", "Still leave some ancient virtues to our age:", "Nor let us say (those English glories gone)", "The last true Briton lies beneath this stone." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Two Lovers Struck Dead by Lightning.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "When Eastern lovers feed the funeral fire,", "On the same pile the faithful pair expire.", "Here pitying Heaven that virtue mutual found,", "And blasted both, that it might neither wound.", "Hearts so sincere, the Almighty saw well pleased,", "Sent his own lightning, and the victims seized.", "", " NEAR THIS PLACE LIE THE BODIES OF", " JOHN HEWET AND SARAH DREW,", " AN INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG MAN,", " AND VIRTUOUS MAIDEN OF THIS PARISH;", " WHO, BEING AT HARVEST-WORK", " (WITH SEVERAL OTHERS),", "WERE IN ONE INSTANT KILLED BY LIGHTNING,", " THE LAST DAY OF JULY 1718.", "", "Think not, by rigorous judgment seized,", " A pair so faithful could expire;", "Victims so pure Heaven saw well pleased,", " And snatch'd them in celestial fire.", "", "Live well, and fear no sudden fate;", " When God calls virtue to the grave,", "Alike 'tis justice soon or late,", " Mercy alike to kill or save.", "", "Virtue unmoved can hear the call,", " And face the flash that melts the ball." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Charles Earl of Dorset, in the Church of Withyam, in Sussex.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "'His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani Munere!'", "", "VIRG.", "", "Dorset, the grace of courts, the Muses' pride,", "Patron of arts, and judge of nature, died.", "The scourge of pride, though sanctified or great,", "Of fops in learning, and of knaves in state:", "Yet soft his nature, though severe his lay,", "His anger moral, and his wisdom gay.", "Bless'd satirist! who touch'd the mean so true,", "As show'd vice had his hate and pity too.", "Blest courtier! who could king and country please,", "Yet sacred keep his friendships, and his ease.", "Blest peer! his great forefathers' every grace", "Reflecting, and reflected in his race;", "Where other Buckhursts, other Dorsets shine,", "And patriots still, or poets, deck the line." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Mr Gay, in Westminster Abbey, 1732.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Of manners gentle, of affections mild;", "In wit, a man; simplicity, a child:", "With native humour tempering virtuous rage,", "Form'd to delight at once and lash the age:", "Above temptation in a low estate,", "And uncorrupted, even among the great:", "A safe companion, and an easy friend,", "Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end.", "These are thy honours! not that here thy bust", "Is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust;", "But that the worthy and the good shall say,", "Striking their pensive bosoms--Here lies Gay." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Dr Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, Who Died in Exile at Paris, 1732.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "SHE.", "", "Yes, we have lived--one pang, and then we part!", "May Heaven, dear father! now have all thy heart.", "Yet ah! how once we loved, remember still,", "Till you are dust like me.", "", "HE.", " Dear shade! I will:", "Then mix this dust with thine--O spotless ghost!", "O more than fortune, friends, or country lost!", "Is there on earth one care, one wish beside?", "Yes--Save my country, Heaven!", " --He said, and died." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Edmund Duke of Buckingham, Who Died in the Nineteenth Year of", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "HIS AGE, 1735.", "", "If modest youth, with cool reflection crown'd,", "And every opening virtue blooming round,", "Could save a parent's justest pride from fate,", "Or add one patriot to a sinking state;", "This weeping marble had not ask'd thy tear,", "Or sadly told how many hopes lie here!", "The living virtue now had shone approved,", "The senate heard him, and his country loved.", "Yet softer honours, and less noisy fame", "Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham:", "In whom a race, for courage famed and art,", "Ends in the milder merit of the heart;", "And chiefs or sages long to Britain given,", "Pays the last tribute of a saint to Heaven." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "An Epitaph On A Child Of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Weep with me, all you that read", "This little story;", "And know, for whom a tear you shed", "Death's self is sorry.", "'Twas a child that so did thrive", "In grace and feature,", "As heaven and nature seemed to strive", "Which owned the creature.", "", "Years he numbered scarce thirteen", "When fates turned cruel,", "Yet three filled zodiacs had be been", "The stage's jewel;", "And did act what now we moan,", "Old men so duly,", "As, sooth, the parcae thought him one,", "He played so truly.", "", "So by error, so his fate", "They all consented;", "But viewing him since, alas too late,", "They have repented,", "And have sought to give new birth,", "In baths to steep him;", "But being so much too good for earth,", "Heaven vows to keep him." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Epitaph on her Son H. P.", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "WHat on Earth deserves our trust ?", "Youth and Beauty both are dust.", "Long we gathering are with pain,", "What one moment calls again.", "Seven years childless, marriage past,", "A Son, a son is born at last :", "So exactly lim'd and fair.", "Full of good Spirits, Meen, and Air,", "As a long life promised,", "Yet, in less than six weeks dead.", "Too promising, too great a mind", "In so small room to be confin'd :", "Therefore, as fit in Heav'n to dwell,", "He quickly broke the Prison shell.", "So the subtle Alchimist,", "Can't with Hermes Seal resist", "The powerful spirit's subtler flight,", "But t'will bid him long good night.", "And so the Sun if it arise", "Half so glorious as his Eyes,", "Like this Infant, takes a shrowd,", "Buried in a morning Cloud." ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "TO these whom death again did wed", "This grave 's the second marriage-bed.", "For though the hand of Fate could force", "'Twixt soul and body a divorce,", "It could not sever man and wife,", "Because they both lived but one life.", "Peace, good reader, do not weep;", "Peace, the lovers are asleep.", "They, sweet turtles, folded lie", "In the last knot that love could tie.", "Let them sleep, let them sleep on,", "Till the stormy night be gone,", "And the eternal morrow dawn;", "Then the curtains will be drawn,", "And they wake into a light", "Whose day shall never die in night." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Epitaph for Joseph Blacket, Late Poet and Shoemaker", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "STRANGER! behold, interred together,", "The _souls_ of learning and of leather.", "Poor Joe is gone, but left his _all_:", "You'll find his relics in a _stall_.", "His works were neat, and often found", "Well stitched, and with _morocco_ bound.", "Tread lightly--where the bard is laid--", "He cannot mend the shoe he made;", "Yet is he happy in his hole,", "With verse immortal as his _sole_.", "But still to business he held fast,", "And stuck to Phoebus to the _last_.", "Then who shall say so good a fellow", "Was only \"leather and prunella?\"", "For character--he did not lack it;", "And if he did, 'twere shame to \"Black-it.\"" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on the Hon. Simon Harcourt, Only Son of the Lord Chancellor", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "HARCOURT, AT THE CHURCH OF STANTON HARCOURT, IN OXFORDSHIRE, 1720.", "", "To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near;", "Here lies the friend most loved, the son most dear:", "Who ne'er knew joy, but friendship might divide,", "Or gave his father grief but when he died.", "", "How vain is reason, eloquence how weak!", "If Pope must tell what Harcourt cannot speak.", "Oh, let thy once-loved friend inscribe thy stone,", "And, with a father's sorrows, mix his own!" ], "linecount": "9" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on James Craggs, Esq. in Westminster Abbey.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "JACOBUS CRAGGS REGI MAGNAE BRITANNIA A SECRETIS ET CONSILIIS", "SANCTIORIBUS, PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIAE: VIXIT", "TITULIS ET INVIDIA MAJOR ANNOS, HEU PAUCOS, XXXV. OB. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX.", "", "Statesman, yet friend to Truth! of soul sincere,", "In action faithful, and in honour clear!", "Who broke no promise, served no private end,", "Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend;", "Ennobled by himself, by all approved,", "Praised, wept, and honour'd by the Muse he loved." ], "linecount": "9" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Mrs Corbet, Who Died of a Cancer in Her Breast.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Here rests a woman, good without pretence,", "Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense:", "No conquests she, but o'er herself, desired,", "No arts essay'd, but not to be admired.", "Passion and pride were to her soul unknown,", "Convinced that virtue only is our own.", "So unaffected, so composed a mind;", "So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so refined;", "Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried;", "The saint sustain'd it, but the woman died." ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Sir Godfrey Kneller, in Westminster Abbey, 1723.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master, taught,", "Whose art was Nature, and whose pictures Thought;", "Now for two ages having snatch'd from Fate", "Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,", "Lies crown'd with princes' honours, poets' lays,", "Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise.", "", "Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie", "Her works; and, dying, fears herself may die." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Mr Elijah Fenton, at Easthamstead, in Berks, 1730.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "This modest stone, what few vain marbles can,", "May truly say, Here lies an honest man:", "A poet, blest beyond the poet's fate,", "Whom Heaven kept sacred from the proud and great:", "Foe to loud praise, and friend to learnèd ease,", "Content with science in the vale of peace.", "Calmly he look'd on either life, and here", "Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;", "From Nature's temperate feast rose satisfied,", "Thank'd Heaven that he had lived, and that he died." ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "Epitaph. Another, on the Same.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Under this marble, or under this sill,", "Or under this turf, or e'en what they will;", "Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead,", "Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head,", "Lies one who ne'er cared, and still cares not a pin", "What they said, or may say, of the mortal within:", "But who, living and dying, serene still and free,", "Trusts in God, that as well as he was, he shall be." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "38. Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "O YE whose cheek the tear of pity stains,", " Draw near with pious rev’rence, and attend!", "Here lie the loving husband’s dear remains,", " The tender father, and the gen’rous friend;", "The pitying heart that felt for human woe,", " The dauntless heart that fear’d no human pride;", "The friend of man-to vice alone a foe;", " For “ev’n his failings lean’d to virtue’s side.” 1", "", "", " Note 1. Goldsmith.—R. B. [back]" ], "linecount": "9" }, { "title": "421. Epitaph on a Lap-dog", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "IN wood and wild, ye warbling throng,", " Your heavy loss deplore;", "Now, half extinct your powers of song,", " Sweet Echo is no more.", "", "", "Ye jarring, screeching things around,", " Scream your discordant joys;", "Now, half your din of tuneless sound", " With Echo silent lies." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "166. Epitaph for William Nicol, High School, Edinburgh", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "YE maggots, feed on Nicol’s brain,", " For few sic feasts you’ve gotten;", "And fix your claws in Nicol’s heart,", " For deil a bit o’t’s rotten." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "167. Epitaph for Mr. William Michie, Schoolmaster", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "HERE lie Willie Michie’s banes;", " O Satan, when ye tak him,", "Gie him the schulin o’ your weans,", " For clever deils he’ll mak them!" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "AN EPITAPH UPON A CHILD", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Virgins promised when I died,", "That they would each primrose-tide", "Duly, morn and evening, come,", "And with flowers dress my tomb.", "--Having promised, pay your debts", "Maids, and here strew violets." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "Epitaph upon a Child that died", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "HERE she lies, a pretty bud,", "Lately made of flesh and blood:", "Who as soon fell fast asleep", "As her little eyes did peep.", "Give her strewings, but not stir", "The earth that lightly covers her." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "Sonnet 81: Or I shall live your epitaph to make", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "Or I shall live your epitaph to make,", "Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;", "From hence your memory death cannot take,", "Although in me each part will be forgotten.", "Your name from hence immortal life shall have,", "Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:", "The earth can yield me but a common grave,", "When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.", "Your monument shall be my gentle verse,", "Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;", "And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse,", "When all the breathers of this world are dead;", " You still shall live,--such virtue hath my pen,--", " Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Epitaph on a Beloved Friend", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "Oh, Friend! for ever lov'd, for ever dear!", "What fruitless tears have bathed thy honour'd bier!", "What sighs re-echo'd to thy parting breath,", "Whilst thou wast struggling in the pangs of death!", "Could tears retard the tyrant in his course;", "Could sighs avert his dart's relentless force;", "Could youth and virtue claim a short delay,", "Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey;", "Thou still hadst liv'd to bless my aching sight,", "Thy comrade's honour and thy friend's delight.", "If yet thy gentle spirit hover nigh", "The spot where now thy mouldering ashes lie,", "Here wilt thou read, recorded on my heart,", "A grief too deep to trust the sculptor's art.", "No marble marks thy couch of lowly sleep,", "But living statues there are seen to weep;", "Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb,", "Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom.", "What though thy sire lament his failing line,", "A father's sorrows cannot equal mine!", "Though none, like thee, his dying hour will cheer,", "Yet other offspring soothe his anguish here:", "But, who with me shall hold thy former place?", "Thine image, what new friendship can efface?", "Ah, none!--a father's tears will cease to flow,", "Time will assuage an infant brother's woe;", "To all, save one, is consolation known,", "While solitary Friendship sighs alone.", "", "Could youth and virtue claim a short delay,", "Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey,", "Thou still had'st liv'd to bless my aching sight,", "Thy comrade's honour, and thy friend's delight:", "Though low thy lot since in a cottage born,", "No titles did thy humble name adorn,", "To me, far dearer, was thy artless love,", "Than all the joys, wealth, fame, and friends could prove.", "For thee alone I liv'd, or wish'd to live,", "(Oh God! if impious, this rash word forgive,)", "Heart-broken now, I wait an equal doom,", "Content to join thee in thy turf-clad tomb;", "Where this frail form compos'd in endless rest,", "I'll make my last, cold, pillow on thy breast;", "That breast where oft in life, I've laid my head,", "Will yet receive me mouldering with the dead;", "This life resign'd, without one parting sigh,", "Together in one bed of earth we'll lie!", "Together share the fate to mortals given,", "Together mix our dust, and hope for Heaven._" ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "Translation of the Epitaph on Virgil and Tibullus, by Domitius Marsus", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "He who, sublime, in epic numbers roll'd,", "And he who struck the softer lyre of Love,", "By Death's _unequal_hand alike controul'd,", "Fit comrades in Elysian regions move!" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Epitaph on John Adams, of Southwell, a Carrier, Who Died of Drunkenness", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "JOHN ADAMS lies here, of the parish of Southwell,", "A _Carrier_ who _carried_ his can to his mouth well;", "He carried so much and he carried so fast,", "He could carry no more--so was carried at last;", "For the liquor he drank being too much for one,", "He could not _carry_ off;--so he's now _carri-on_." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "My Epitaph", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "YOUTH, Nature, and relenting Jove,", "To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove;", "But Romanelli was so stout,", "He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Substitute for an Epitaph", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "KIND Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;", "Here HAROLD lies--but where's his Epitaph?", "If such you seek, try Westminster, and view", "Ten thousand just as fit for him as you." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Epitaph for William Pitt", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "WITH Death doomed to grapple,", " Beneath this cold slab, he", "Who lied in the Chapel", " Now lies in the Abbey." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Epitaph", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "POSTERITY will ne'er survey", " A nobler grave than this;", "Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:", " Stop traveller, * *" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on Sir William Trumbull.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "A pleasing form; a firm, yet cautious mind;", "Sincere, though prudent; constant, yet resign'd:", "Honour unchanged, a principle profess'd,", "Fix'd to one side, but moderate to the rest:", "An honest courtier, yet a patriot too;", "Just to his prince, and to his country true:", "Fill'd with the sense of age, the fire of youth,", "A scorn of wrangling, yet a zeal for truth;", "A generous faith, from superstition free:", "A love to peace, and hate of tyranny;", "Such this man was; who now, from earth removed,", "At length enjoys that liberty he loved." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Epitaph. Intended for Mr Rowe, in Westminster Abbey.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Thy relics, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust,", "And sacred place by Dryden's awful dust:", "Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies,", "To which thy tomb shall guide inquiring eyes.", "Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest!", "Blest in thy genius, in thy love, too, blest!", "One grateful woman to thy fame supplies", "What a whole thankless land to his denies." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Epitaph. on the Monument of the Honourable Egbert Digby, and His Sister", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "MARY.", "", "ERECTED BY THEIR FATHER THE LORD DIGBY, IN THE CHURCH OF SHERBORNE, IN", "DORSETSHIRE, 1727.", "", "Go! fair example of untainted youth,", "Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:", "Composed in sufferings, and in joy sedate,", "Good without noise, without pretension great.", "Just of thy word, in every thought sincere,", "Who knew no wish but what the world might hear:", "Of softest manners, unaffected mind,", "Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:", "Go live! for Heaven's eternal year is thine,", "Go, and exalt thy moral to divine.", "", "And thou, bless'd maid! attendant on his doom,", "Pensive hast follow'd to the silent tomb,", "Steer'd the same course to the same quiet shore,", "Not parted long, and now to part no more!", "Go then, where only bliss sincere is known!", "Go, where to love and to enjoy are one!", "", "Yet take these tears, Mortality's relief,", "And till we share your joys, forgive our grief:", "These little rites, a stone, a verse receive;", "'Tis all a father, all a friend can give!" ], "linecount": "23" }, { "title": "Epitaph. for One Who Would Not Be Buried in Westminster Abbey.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "Heroes and kings! your distance keep:", "In peace let one poor poet sleep,", "Who never flatter'd folks like you:", "Let Horace blush, and Virgil too." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Epitaph", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "These are two friends whose lives were undivided;", "So let their memory be, now they have glided", "Under the grave; let not their bones be parted,", "For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.", "", " This morn thy gallant bark", " Sailed on a sunny sea:", " 'Tis noon, and tempests dark", " Have wrecked it on the lee.", " Ah woe! ah woe!", " By Spirits of the deep", " Thou'rt cradled on the billow", " To thy eternal sleep.", "", " Thou sleep'st upon the shore", " Beside the knelling surge,", " And Sea-nymphs evermore", " Shall sadly chant thy dirge.", " They come, they come,", " The Spirits of the deep,--", " While near thy seaweed pillow", " My lonely watch I keep.", "", " From far across the sea", " I hear a loud lament,", " By Echo's voice for thee", " From Ocean's caverns sent.", " O list! O list!", " The Spirits of the deep!", " They raise a wail of sorrow,", " While I forever weep." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "Epitaphium", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "[LATIN VERSION OF THE EPITAPH IN GRAY'S ELEGY.]", "", "Hic sinu fessum caput hospitali", "Cespitis dormit juvenis, nec illi", "Fata ridebant, popularis ille", "Nescius aurae.", "", "Musa non vultu genus arroganti", "Rustica natum grege despicata,", "Et suum tristis puerum notavit", "Sollicitudo.", "", "Indoles illi bene larga, pectus", "Veritas sedem sibi vindicavit,", "Et pari tantis meritis beavit", "Munere coelum.", "", "Omne quad moestis habuit miserto", "Corde largivit lacrimam, recepit", "Omne quod coelo voluit, fidelis", "Pectus amici.", "", "Longius sed tu fuge curiosus", "Caeteras laudes fuge suspicari,", "Caeteras culpas fuge velle tractas", "Sede tremenda.", "", "Spe tremescentes recubant in illa", "Sede virtutes pariterque culpae,", "In sui Patris gremio, tremenda", "Sede Deique." ], "linecount": "25" } ]