Definition and Examples of Epitaphs

Definition and Examples of Epitaphs Definition (1) A tribute is a short engraving in composition or stanza on a headstone or landmark. The best tributes, composed F. Lawrence in 1852, are commonly the most brief and the plainest. In no portrayal of structure is intricate and exceptionally elaborate expressiveness such a great amount strange (Sharpes London Magazine). (2) The term tribute may likewise allude to an announcement or discourse recognizing somebody who has kicked the bucket: a memorial service speech. Descriptive word: epitaphic or epitaphial. Expositions on Epitaphs On Epitaphs, by E.V. LucasOn Graveyards, by Louise Imogen GuineyOn Inscriptions and the Lapidary Style, by Vicesimus KnoxOn the Selection of Epitaphs, by Archibald MacMechan Instances of Epitaphs Here falsehoods Frank Pixley, as usual.(Composed by Ambrose Bierce for Frank M. Pixley, an American columnist and politician)Here lies my better half: here let her lie!Now shes very still, as am I.(John Dryden, tribute proposed for his wife)Here lies the assemblage of Jonathan Near,Whose mouth is extended from ear to ear;Tread delicately, stranger, oer this wonder,For in the event that he yawns, youre gone, by thunder.(Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, Funny Epitaphs. The Mutual Book Company, 1902)ThorpesCorpse(Quoted in Gleanings from the Harvest-Fields of Literature by C. C. Bombaugh, 1860)Under the sodUnder these treesLies the group of Jonathan PeaseHe isn't hereBut just his podHe has dished out his peasAnd gone to God.(Epitaph in Old North Cemetery, Nantucket, Massachusetts, cited in Famous Last Words, by Laura Ward. Authentic Publishing Company, 2004)Here falsehoods an incredible and forceful kingWhose guarantee none depends on;He never said a silly thingNor ever did an insightfu l one.(John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, on King Charles II) The tribute thrived in the seventeenth century when essayists battled over the social capacity of the dead. . . . From the mid eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century, the most significant idyllic memorials look for better approaches for approving the significance of the dead.(Joshua Scodel, The English Poetic Epitaph. Cornell Univ. Press, 1991)The guideline goal of tributes is to sustain the instances of righteousness, that the tomb of a decent man may flexibly the need of his quality, and worship for his memory produce a similar impact as the perception of his life.(Samuel Johnson, An Essay on Epitaphs, 1740)O Rare Ben Jonson,neither commendation nor concision can be conveyed farther than in those straightforward words, and no Latin could give the true and liberal impact of the English...The general inability to deliver an ideal engraving is the more striking, on the grounds that the author of commemorations isn't worried to paint a valid and precise representation. The motivation behind a memorial is preferably to adulate over to depict, since, as per [Samuel] Johnsons astounding expression, in lapidary engravings a man isn't upon pledge. The substance, to be sure, might be typical, if just the style be adequate.(The Lapidary Style. The Spectator, April 29, 1899) Dorothy Parkers Epitaph for HerselfThat would be something beneficial for them to cut on my gravestone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.(Dorothy Parker, who likewise said that Excuse my residue and This is on me would make appropriate inscriptions) Benjamin Franklins Epitaph for HimselfThe body ofBENJAMIN FRANKLINPrinter,Like the front of an old Book,Its substance torn out,And stript of its Lettering and GildingLies here, Food for Worms;Yet the work itself will not be lost,For it will (as he accepted) show up once moreIn another and increasingly wonderful editionCorrected and altered, byThe Author.(Benjamin Franklin on himself, made numerous years prior to his demise) Rebecca Wests Epitaph for the Human RaceIf the entire human race lay in one grave, the commemoration on its tombstone likely could be: It appeared to be a smart thought at the time.(Rebecca West, cited by Mardy Grothe in Ifferisms, 2009) Further Reading Normally Confused Words: Epigram, Epigraph, and EpitaphObituary