200 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH
An epitaph is a commemorative inscription on a tomb or mortuary monument written to praise the deceased. It may be unrhymed. William Shakespeare, John Keats, and many other eminent poets had penned their own epitaphs. Keats travelled to Rome and died there, aged just 25, in February, 1821. He told his friend Joseph Severn that he didn't want his name to appear on his tombstone, but merely this line: ‘Here lies one whose name was writ in water’.