Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPITAPH ON JAMES MOORE SMYTHE by ALEXANDER POPE

Poet Analysis

First Line: HERE LYES WHAT HAD NOT BIRTH, NOR SHAPE, NOR FAME
Last Line: EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT.
Subject(s): SMYTH, JAMES MOORE;
Here lyes what had nor Birth, nor Shape, nor Fame;
No Gentleman! no man! no-thing! no name!
For Jammie ne'er grew James; and what they call
More, shrunk to Smith -- and Smith's no name at all.
Yet dye thou can'st not, Phantom, oddly fated:
For how can no-thing be annihilated?
Ex nihilo nihil fit.



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