Definition and Examples of Epitaphs

Definition and Examples of Epitaphs Definition (1) A memorial is a short engraving in exposition or section on a gravestone or landmark. The best commemorations, composed F. Lawrence in 1852, are commonly the most limited and the plainest. In no portrayal of sythesis is intricate and profoundly luxurious style such a great amount strange (Sharpes London Magazine). (2) The term inscription may likewise allude to an announcement or discourse celebrating somebody who has kicked the bucket: a memorial service speech. Descriptive word: epitaphic or epitaphial. Papers 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 untruths Frank Pixley, as usual.(Composed by Ambrose Bierce for Frank M. Pixley, an American columnist and politician)Here lies my significant other: here let her lie!Now shes very still, as am I.(John Dryden, commemoration planned for his wife)Here lies the assortment of Jonathan Near,Whose mouth is extended from ear to ear;Tread delicately, stranger, oer this wonder,For on the off chance 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 assemblage 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 strong kingWhose guarantee none depends on;He never said a stupid thingNor eve r did an insightful one.(John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, on King Charles II) The tribute thrived in the seventeenth century when scholars battled over the social capacity of the dead. . . . From the mid eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century, the most significant lovely commemorations look for better approaches for approving the significance of the dead.(Joshua Scodel, The English Poetic Epitaph. Cornell Univ. Press, 1991)The rule aim of tributes is to propagate the instances of uprightness, that the tomb of a decent man may gracefully the need of his essence, and love 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 basic 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 amazing, on the grounds that the author of memorials isn't worried to paint a valid and precise representation. The reason for a tribute is prefer ably to laud over to depict, since, as per [Samuel] Johnsons phenomenal expression, in lapidary engravings a man isn't upon pledge. The substance, without a doubt, might be ordinary, 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 tributes) 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 progressively delightful 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 Ordinarily Confused Words: Epigram, Epigraph, and EpitaphObituary