Epitaph
Stop, Christian passer-by : Stop, child of God,
And read, with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he--
O, lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C.--
That he who many a year with toil of breath
Found death in life, may here find life in death:
Mercy for praise--to be forgiven for fame--
He ask'd, and hoped through Christ. Do thou the same.
Nov. 9, 1833.
Coleridge wrote this his own humble and affectionate epitaph. It was inapplicable to the place in which he was buried, so a handsome tablet, in Highgate New Church, to his memory, was erected. He was, however, reinterred in 1961 to St. Michael's, and this particular epitaph was the one used.
