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Home  »  Complete Poetical Works by Alexander Pope  »  On the Hon. Simon Harcourt

Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903.

Epitaphs

On the Hon. Simon Harcourt

  • Only Son of the Lord Chancellor Harcourt
  • At the Church of Stanton-Harcourt, Oxfordshire, 1720.


  • TO this sad shrine, whoe’er thou art, draw near;

    Here lies the Friend most lov’d, the Son most dear;

    Who ne’er knew Joy but Friendship might divide,

    Or gave his father grief but when he died.

    How vain is Reason, Eloquence how weak!

    If Pope must tell what Harcourt cannot speak.

    Oh, let thy once-lov’d friend inscribe thy stone,

    And with a father’s sorrows mix his own!