by Coleridge · Cluster: Satire of Society · Epigram · Satire
Abstract
A grotesque mock-epitaph epigram on a slanderer (‘Backbite’) buried in haste, whose grave gives off a mephitic stench.
Connections
Motifs: Grave, Decay Themes & Concepts: Grotesque, Satire of Society Forms & Genres: Epigram
Testo integrale / Full text
From yonder tomb of recent date,
There comes a strange mephitic blast.
Here lies — Ha! Backbite, you at last —
‘Tis he indeed: and sure as fate,
They buried him in overhaste —
Into the earth he has been cast,
And in this grave,
Before the man had breathed his last.
1799. First published from an MS. in 1893. An expansion of [Epigram] No.
12.