Epitaph

 

What is life, 'tis all a vapour

Tho' long on earth we both did stay

Our time was wasted like a taper

Fleeting soon it died away.

Two hundred years ago, Thomas Harris and his wife Elizabeth were buried in Old Somerby churchyard. They both died in the 1820s having reached great ages for their time. Thomas was 82 and Elizabeth was 79. I am sure that their skilfully carved slate gravestone once stood upright but nowadays it lies horizontal in the grass. Possibly a modern health and safety matter.

But what really caught my eye about their gravestone was the epitaph at the bottom. It seems devoid of religious content or any ambition to achieve an after-life state of being. It could have almost been written by the existentialist playwright - Samuel Beckett. A world without a benign "God" watching over them like a shepherd and maybe a pointless world too.

The four lines do not make great poetry. They seem rather amateurish to me  but the meaning is clear. You can sense the despair and it's rather sad that anyone should reach old age and feel so unfulfilled - as if it had all been like a cheap candle burning down.

On a lighter note, it put me in mind of what kind of epitaph I will have on the base of my memorial statue in Endcliffe Park and I have come up with this...

The great Yorkshire Pudding is resting here

He wasted his life on blogging and beer

He could have been someone but chose not to be

And stayed home instead with a nice cup of tea.

Yep, so that's my epitaph. It saves my family a job in what will certainly be a grief-stricken period for them. Why not take a leaf out of my book and write your epitaph too? You can share it in the comments below.  Alternatively, if you need help, I can knock one up carefully craft one for you for a mere fifty guineas! Money up front please.