Cassius HuefferThey have chiseled on my stone the words:“His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in himThat nature might stand up and say to all the world,This was a man.”Those who knew me smileAs they read this empty rhetoric.My epitaph should have been:“Life was not gentle to him,And the elements so mixed in himThat he made warfare on lifeIn the which he was slain.”While I lived I could not cope with slanderous tongues,Now that I am dead I must submit to an epitaphGraven by a fool!
They have chiseled on my stone the words:“His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in himThat nature might stand up and say to all the world,This was a man.”Those who knew me smileAs they read this empty rhetoric.My epitaph should have been:“Life was not gentle to him,And the elements so mixed in himThat he made warfare on lifeIn the which he was slain.”While I lived I could not cope with slanderous tongues,Now that I am dead I must submit to an epitaphGraven by a fool!