In Trembling Hope Repose

THE EPITAPH
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark’d him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav’n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear,
He gain’d from Heav’n (’twas all he wish’d) a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
The bosom of his Father and his God.
—    Thomas Gray
Excerpt from his poem: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard“
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On This Day In:
2015	Let There Be Light
2014	Unless
2013	Divergent Roads To Similarity?
2012	In The Process
2011	What Do You Emphasize?