Epitaphs

[Guinivere]

I enjoy reading epitaphs so why don't we start a collection of famous, funny and truthful epitaphs.

George Washington

Looking into the portals of eternity teached that
The Brotherhood of Man is inspired by God's Word;
Then all prejudice of race vanishes away.

Harry Edsel Smith 1903-1942

Looked up the elevator shaft
To see
If the car was on the way down.
It was.

Spike Milligan 1918-2002

Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite.
I told you I was ill.

[weltanschauung]

i liked these ones:

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/cmx/bbon81l.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/cmx/epitaph.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/facist_jockitch/cmx/jsin41l.jpg

[wessexgirl]

Some good ones here, the first two are over on the War Poetry thread, and are from Kipling.

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.

A Dead Statesman

I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

Good friend for Jesus' sake forbeare To dig the dust enclosed here Blest be the man that spares these stones and curs'd be he that moves my bones
(Shakespeare)

Here lies one whose name was writ in water (Keats, but thankfully it's not)

[Cellar Door]

Here are some that I really like:


AGAINST YOU I WILL FLING MYSELF,
UNVANQUISHED AND UNYIELDING, O DEATH!
Virginia Woolf

As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew,
So this old world is made brighter by the lives
Of folks like you
Bonnie Parker (outlaw "Bonnie and Clyde")

and I absolutely love this one:

ALIEN TEARS WILL FILL FOR HIM
PITY'S LONG-BROKEN ERN,
FOR HIS MOURNERS WILL BE OUTCAST MEN,
AND OUTCASTS ALWAYS MOURN.
Oscar Wilde

[Guinivere]

"Here lies the body of Jonathan Ground
Who was lost at sea and never found."

Captain Underwood (drowned)

"Where fierce indignation can no longer tear his heart."

Jonathan Swift

[dafydd manton]

Loved Oscar Wilde's "Here lies one whose name was writ in Hot Water. Also, Spike Milligan, "There you are - I told you I was ill!"

[Pecksie]

I like the Earl of Rochester's mock epitaph on his master, Charles II:

"Here lies our sovereign lord the king,
whose word no man relies on,
who never said a foolish thing
and never did a wise one".

[Niamh]

Spike Milligan 1918-2002

Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite.
I told you I was ill.

:lol: that man was a legend!

Yeats!

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death,
Horseman, pass by!