Here lies Jonson with the rest
Of the poets; but the best.
Reader, would'st thou more have known?
Ask his story, not this stone.
That will speak what this can't tell
Of his glory. So farewell.
Here lies a spirit
once vibrant and alive
now resting in the earth,
echoes of laughter linger,
memories weave through the silence,
a journey complete
Yet forever part of the wind
whispering softly
in the hearts left behind.
LAMENT him, Mauchline husbands a',
He aften did assist ye;
For had ye staid hale weeks awa,
Your wives they ne'er had miss'd ye.
Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye press
To school in bands thegither,
O tread ye lightly on his grass,—
Perhaps he was your father!
HERE Brewer Gabriel's fire's extinct,
And empty all his barrels:
He's blest—if, as he brew'd, he drink,
In upright, honest morals.
WARRIOR of God, man's friend, and tyrant's foe
Now somewhere dead far in the waste Soudan,
Thou livest in all hearts, for all men know
This earth has never borne a nobler man.
I didn't die:
the poetry
and the music
still dwells
in my inside-
a monument
so beautifully
constructed for me
there to reside
distilled with billions
......
Here lies a spirit
once vibrant and alive
now resting in the earth,
echoes of laughter linger,
memories weave through the silence,
a journey complete
Yet forever part of the wind
whispering softly
in the hearts left behind.
Epitaph
Time will tell how you lived.
A lot will happen later.
The one you prayed to will take you.
A stone slab will decorate your headboard.
Are you afraid of death?
Do you think about the row of stone alleys?
With your memorial stone right where you stand,
......
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.
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.'