The Poetry Corner

Epitaph On The Same (On The Death Of Demar, The Usurer)

By Jonathan Swift

Beneath this verdant hillock lies Demar, the wealthy and the wise, His heirs,[1] that he might safely rest, Have put his carcass in a chest; The very chest in which, they say, His other self, his money, lay. And, if his heirs continue kind To that dear self he left behind, I dare believe, that four in five Will think his better self alive.