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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BEST MEMORIAL by AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS

First Line: COLUMNS AND GRAVEN MONUMENTS, THESE CAN GIVE
Last Line: NEED IN NO VAIN TOMB BE PINING.
Subject(s): FAME; REPUTATION;
COLUMNS and graven monuments, these can give
Great joy of owning -- while you live.
Not very far can men's vain praise help on
The spirits of the dead and gone.
'Tis skill and grace of art that follow there,
Yet live, winning remembrance here.
Plato and Homer the assurance have
Only of art, not painted grave.
Happy, whose fame, secure in books' enshrining,
Need in no vain tomb be pining.



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