THEY have chiseled on my stone the words: "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him That nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a man." Those who knew me smile As they read this empty rhetoric. My epitaph should have been: "Life was not gentle to him, And the elements so mixed in him That he made warfare on life, In the which he was slain." While I lived I could not cope with slanderous tongues, Now that I am dead I must submit to an epitaph Graven by a fool! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE KINGS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ELEGIAC SONNET: 4. TO THE MOON by CHARLOTTE SMITH ELEGIAC SONNET: 44. WRITTEN IN THE CHURCH YARD AT MIDDLETON IN SUSSEX by CHARLOTTE SMITH ELEGIAC SONNET: 7. ON THE DEPARTURE OF THE NIGHTINGALE by CHARLOTTE SMITH THIRTY EIGHT. ADDRESSED TO MRS. H -- Y. by CHARLOTTE SMITH THE LITTLE CROSS by EDITH AGNEW THE TWO GRAVES by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE WANDERER: 3. IN ENGLAND: THE DEATH OF KING HACON by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |