Death & Dying

Epitaph on General Gorges and Lady Meath

by Jonathan Swift 1667–1745

Death & Dying

Under this stone lies Dick and Dolly.
Doll dying first, Dick grew melancholy;
For Dick without Doll thought living a folly.

Dick lost in Doll a wife tender and dear:
But Dick lost by Doll twelve hundred a-year;
A loss that Dick thought no mortal could bear.

Dick sigh'd for his Doll, and his mournful arms cross'd;
Thought much of his Doll, and the jointure he lost;
The first vex'd him much, the other vex'd most.

Thus loaded with grief, Dick sigh'd and he cried:
To live without both full three days he tried;
But liked neither loss, and so quietly died.

Dick left a pattern few will copy after:
Then, reader, pray shed some tears of salt water;
For so sad a tale is no subject of laughter.
Meath smiles for the jointure, though gotten so late;
The son laughs, that got the hard-gotten estate;
And Cuffe grins, for getting the Alicant plate.

Here quiet they lie, in hopes to rise one day,
Both solemnly put in this hole on a Sunday,
And here rest----sic transit gloria mundi!

MLA

Swift, Jonathan. “Epitaph on General Gorges and Lady Meath.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/swift/131/.

Chicago

Swift, Jonathan. “Epitaph on General Gorges and Lady Meath.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/swift/131/.

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