Alexander Pope: Minor poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Alexander Pope: Minor poems

Edited by Norman Ault: Completed by John Butt

Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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IV. EPITAPH

On James Moore Smythe .

Here lyes what had nor Birth, nor Shape, nor Fame;
No Gentleman! no man! no-thing! no name!

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For Jammie ne'er grew James; and what they call
More, shrunk to Smith—and Smith's no name at all.
Yet dye thou can'st not, Phantom, oddly fated:
For how can no-thing be annihilated?

Ex nihilo nihil fit.