Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MONUMENTAL, by WALT MASON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MONUMENTAL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When I have ceased to rant and rave, and
Last Line: Silent sea, a three-foot slab of slippery elm is plenty good enough for me.
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Corpses; Death; Monuments; Stones; Graveyards; Cadavers; Dead, The; Granite; Rocks


WHEN I have ceased to rant and rave, and all my earthly days are spent, I pray
you place not on my grave a large and gaudy monument. All ostentation's doubly
vain, when on this world we've closed our eyes; give me a slab, with legend
plain: "Beneath this board your uncle lies." For if I've cut some grass on
earth, I'll need no marble to proclaim the story of my sterling worth, or to
perpetuate my fame. And if I am a false alarm, not worth the room I occupy, no
towering shaft can add a charm to my bum record, when I die. How foolish look
the gents who sleep beneath all kinds of sculptured rocks, who were considered
passing cheap, before we placed each in his box. How foolish is all such parade,

such pomp amid the graveyard gorse! A hundred-dollar saddle laid upon a fifteen-

dollar horse! When I have jumped this mundane realm, and journeyed o'er the
silent sea, a three-foot slab of slippery elm is plenty good enough for me.




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