Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPIGRAM by ROBERT BURNS

Poet Analysis

First Line: ONE QUEEN ARTEMISIA, AS OLD STORIES TELL
Last Line: NOT TO SHOW HER RESPECT, BUT TO SAVE THE EXPENSE!
Subject(s): FUNERALS; MARRIAGE;
One Queen Artemisia, as old stories tell,
When deprived of her husband she loved so well,
In respect for the love and affection he show'd her,
She reduc'd him to dust and she drank up the powder.
But Queen Netherplace, of a diff'rent complexion,
When called on to order the fun'ral direction,
Would have eat her dead lord, on a slender pretence,
Not to show her respect, but to save the expense!




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