Epitaph on himself: to the Countess of Bedford
Donne addresses Madam (the Countess of Bedford), asking her to let her cabinet serve as his tomb, offering her, next after his own soul, the fairest place for his fame, and requesting that she admit this last funeral scroll to that place. He notes that others bequeath legacies by wills, but he, dying, instead begs a legacy of her. He says his fortune and his will break this custom of leaving legacies, since only when men have grown senseless can stones be made to speak. Though no stone will tell her what he was, he tells her that inside his grave she may see what she herself now is, adding that she is not yet so good as that state, for only when death lays us to ripen and mellow are we more than stubborn clay. He explains that parents make human beings earth, and souls dignify them to be glass, and that here, in the grave, they lie growing toward gold. He closes by observing that while sin is bred and pampered in souls, those souls become worm-eaten carcases.
By John Donne · First published 1635 · Genre: Epitaph, Metaphysical Poetry, Religious and Spiritual Poetry · 203 words
First lines
Madam, / That I might make your cabinet my tomb, / And for my fame, which I love next my soul, / Next to my soul provide the happiest room, / Admit to that place this last funeral scroll. / Others by wills give legacies, but I / Dying, of you do beg a legacy.
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Epitaph on himself: to the Countess of Bedford is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1635 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Donne
- Date: 1635 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Epitaph, Metaphysical Poetry, Religious and Spiritual Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Dedicatory Verse
- Length: 203 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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Genres
- Epitaph — The work is explicitly an epitaph—a commemorative verse about death and legacy. Donne presents his own funeral monument as a legacy to the Countess of Bedford, making the epitaph form central to the poem's primary purpose and structure.
- Metaphysical Poetry — As a defining work of metaphysical poetry, the poem employs elaborate intellectual conceits (cabinet as tomb, transformation of clay to gold through death) and paradoxical wit characteristic of Donne and the metaphysical school of poets.
- Religious and Spiritual Poetry — The poem is dominated by theological concerns about the immortal soul, sin, spiritual redemption, and transformation, with rich Christian imagery of the soul as glass and becoming gold through spiritual discipline and divine grace.
- Philosophical Poetry — The poem engages in sustained philosophical exploration of death, legacy, human transformation, and the nature of the soul, presenting paradoxical ideas about how death ripens and perfects the stubborn clay of human nature.
Tags
epitaph · metaphysical · 17th-century · devotional · mortality · self-reflection · wit · memorial · legacy · conceit · lyrical · elegiac