Tuesday 10 March 2009

Nought queer as folk



Spoon River Anthology (1915), by Edgar Lee Masters

...the dead have been given one final opportunity to speak to the living in the form of epitaphs. Take a stroll through the graveyard; the words on each tombstone create an image of the way the person's life was lived. Together, these tombstones tell of a community that strove for perfection and goodness and relied heavily on faith - but, things don't always turn out as planned... - Spoon River Anthology - Literary Touchstone Classic

Judge Somers

How does it happen, tell me,
That I who was most erudite of lawyers,
Who knew Blackstone and Coke
Almost by heart, who made the greatest speech
The court-house ever heard, and wrote
A brief that won the praise of Justice Breese
How does it happen, tell me,
That I lie here unmarked, forgotten,
While Chase Henry, the town drunkard,
Has a marble block, topped by an urn
Wherein Nature, in a mood ironical,
Has sown a flowering weed?



Full LibriVox audio.

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8 comments:

Pigtown-Design said...

Loved that show! :-)

Jill said...

What would your epitaph say?

HOBAC said...

J - I don't know... and I have been thinking about it. I almost included that as a question in the post.

My partner said recently (in response to a friends opining that life with me could not be easy) : "... at least it hasn't been boring."

HOBAC said...

J - what would yours say?

Karen said...

one of my great favorites is that a first edition?

HOBAC said...

K - I believe it is, courtesy of wikipedia )

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

I intend to put my recipe for fudge on my tombstone. Seriously. Everyone can just make it for themselves.

Jill said...

She lived unencumbered by social mores.