An Epitaph A Day - November 2

Keeps Death's Spectre Away

ON MR. JOHN MOLE
Who died at Worcester

BENEATH this cold stone lies a son of the Earth;
His story is short, though we date from his birth;
His mind was as gross as his body was big;
He drank like a fish, and he ate like a pig.
No cares of religion, of wedlock, or state,
Did e'er, for a moment, encumber John's pate:
He sat, or he walk'd, but his walk was but creeping,
And he rose from his bed — when quite tir'd of sleeping.
Without foe, without friend, unnotic'd he died;
Not a single soul laugh'd, not a single soul cried.
Like his four-footed namesake, he dearly lov'd earth,
So the sexton has cover'd his body with turf.

Source:

Johnson, Samuel. A Collection of Epitaphs and Monumental Inscriptions, Historical, Biographical, Literary, and Miscellaneous: To which is Prefixed, An Essay on Epitaphs. London: Lackington, Allen, & Co., 1806. p. 109.