By Andrew Hoffman
Hello all, it has been a couple weeks since my first article of a series focusing on a lighter subject, the epitath. An epitaph is defined as a phrase or form of words written in memory of a person who has died, as an inscription on a tombstone. Some of the best memorable epitaphs were written by poets William Browne, Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, and authors John Milton and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Not everyone who wrote an epitaph was a famous poet or writer, most were common grave diggers or semi-literate monument dealers. As a result, some epitaphs were unintentionally comical in error. Far more common than the accidental humorous epitaphs are deliberately witty ones that can be found throughout Britain and the United States in the form of acrostics (which is a poem or other word composition in which the first letter of each new line spells out a word or message), palindromes (a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards), riddles and puns on names and professions. An example of this is Benjamin Franklin’s epitaph, which he wrote for himself. He wanted the epitaph on his tombstone to play on his trade as a printer, and it reads “The Body of B. Franklin, Printer. Like the cover of an old Book, its Contents torn out, And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here Food for Worms.”
A great deal of epitaphs have a dry mocking humor, such as English poet John Gay’s which reads “Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it.” The epitaph has also been seen as an opportunity for satire in the form of an epigram which often include a twist at the end, which adds humor or irony to the statement. For example, Albert Einstein was well known of the epigram “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” As you can see an epigram is brief, clever and a little snarky. Another example is the Earl of Rochester’s lines on Charles II; “He never said a foolish thing / Nor ever did a wise one.” The art of the epitaph has largely been lost in the 20 th century with the exception of some humorous ones, like writer Dorothy Parker who wrote “Excuse my dust.” But also wrote the poem Epitaph; The first time I died, I walked my ways; I followed the file of limping days. I held me tall, with my head flung up, But I dared not look on the new moon’s cup. I dared not look on the sweet young rain, And between my ribs was a gleaming pain. The next time I died, they laid me deep. They spoke worn words to hallow my sleep. They tossed me petals, they wreathed me fern, They weighted me down with a marble urn. And I lie here warm, and I lie here dry, Andy watch the worms slip by , slip by.
The words we choose for our gravestone says a lot about who we are and were. Anyone who visits an old cemetery will be drawn to read the mossy sun-bleached inscriptions carved into the ancient monuments. Epitaphs have always given food for reflection and serve not only to record the death of an individual, but to remind us all of our ultimate fate. Samuel Butler wrote; “Our noblest pile and stateliest rooms, Are Mere out-houses to our tombs; Cities, tho’ ere so great and brave, But mere warehouses to the grave.”
Stay tuned to my next article as we go deeper into art of the epitaph and highlight some humorous ones.
Andrew B. Hoffman is a funeral director at Jeffries and Keates and Keates-Plum Funeral Homes. He is a twenty-two year veteran of the funeral industry.
