Epitaph. Intended for Sir Isaac Newton, in Westminster Abbey. — Summary

For Newton’s tomb in Westminster Abbey, Pope wrote an epitaph that glows with reverence. The Latin lines confess a paradox: time, nature, and the heavens testify that he is immortal, yet this slab of marble declares him mortal. Then the famous English couplet arrives like a flash. Before Newton, the laws of nature lay buried in darkness. God simply said, “Let Newton be!”—an echo of Genesis—and all became light. The speaker treats Newton’s intellect as a second creation, a divine gift that dissolved mystery. There is no grief here, only a kind of sacred awe. The mood is crisp and still, like a sudden sunrise pouring into a chapel, leaving you hushed and grateful for the reach of the human mind.