A POET'S EPITAPH

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is probably best remembered for two poems, ‘Kubla Khan’ and ’ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, the former supposedly written while the young poet was under the influence of opium. He died on the 25 th. Of July in 1834 and an autopsy revealed that he had been suffering from an enlarged heart. He was buried at Old Highgate Chapel but in 1961 he was re-interred in St. Michael’s Church. He wrote this epitaph in the last year of his life.

 O, Lift One Thought

'Stop, Christian Passer-by! - Stop, child of God,
And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he. -
O, lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.;
That he who many a year with toil of breath
Found death in life, may here find life in death!
Mercy for praise - to be forgiven for fame
He ask'd, and hoped, through Christ.
Do thou the same!'

Samuel Taylor Coleridge