More Music in Cemeteries. . .
Summer sun, shine kindly here;
Warm southern wind, blow softly here;
Green sod above, lie light, lie light --
Good-night, dear heart, good-night,
good-night.
- from the grave of Olivia S. Clemens, departed August 18, 1890
Sleep here Awhile
Thou dearest part of me
In Little Time
I'll come and Sleep with Thee.
- unknown
It is so soon that I am done for,
I wonder what I was begun for.
- unknown, 17th century
Stop stranger as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so you will be
So be prepared to follow me.
- unknown
(Inscribed beneath:
And, shaking hands, they parted all in love.
The body's here, the better part's above.
- from the grave of Grace Traddleston
Do not stand by my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am a diamond glint on snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circular flight
I am the soft starshine at night.
Do not stand by my grave and cry
I am not there. . . I did not die.
- ? Northwest Indian Memorial, from a garden stone in Ross Park Zoo
To mark a friend's remains
these stones arise;
I never knew but one--
and here he lies.
- Lord Byron, quoted in In Remembrance of a Special Dog by Richard O'Connor
No matter how deep my sleep I shall hear you,
and not all the power of death
can keep my spirit
from wagging a grateful tail.
- from the book The Last
Will and Testament
of an Extremely Distinguished Dog by Eugene O'Neil
Dry up your tears, and weep no more,
I am not dead, but gone before,
Remember me, and bear in mind
You have not long to stay behind.
- unknown
I shall lie like this when I am dead--
But with one more secret in my head.
- Dorothy Livesay's "Going to Sleep", from the poetry collection To Say the Least edited by P. K. Page
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell,
But life goes on,
So sing as well.
by Joyce Grenfell, quoted by Greg Palmer in the PBS television program "Death: The Trip of a
Lifetime"
She had no fault but
what travellers give the moon :
Her light was lovely, but she died too soon.
- from the grave of Elizabeth Emma Thomas, Islington, 1808 (from Thomas J. Pettigrew's Chronicles of the Tombs, A Select Collection of Epitaphs)
Life is a jest and
all things shew it:
I thought so once, but now I know it.
- from the grave of John Gay, Westminster Abbey, 1732 (from Thomas J. Pettigrew's Chronicles of the Tombs, A Select Collection of Epitaphs)
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Epitaphs from the book Epitaphs: A Dictionary of Grave Epigrams and Memorial Eloquence by Nigel Rees, unless otherwise noted.
(Photos by Debra or myself, taken in the Mont Royal Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec, the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec, the Glenwood & St. Mary's Cemetery, Watkins Glen, N.Y., St. Mark's ? Cemetery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and the Lancaster Cemetery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Please don't use them without permission.)
These pages created by Karen Waschinski.
Questions? Comments? Please e-mail me at woosel[at]total.net
~~A Vampyre's Faerytale: Dà Fhaol Mharbh by Karen Waschinski (with Debra Yee)~~