478. Epigram on a Suicide
EARTH’D up, here lies an imp o’ hell, Planted by Satan’s dibble; Poor silly wretch, he’s damned himsel’, To save the Lord the trouble.
Robert Burns
EARTH’D up, here lies an imp o’ hell, Planted by Satan’s dibble; Poor silly wretch, he’s damned himsel’, To save the Lord the trouble.
Robert Burns’s little epitaph imagines a suicide buried like a weed — “earth’d up” as if dropped in the dirt by Satan’s own trowel. The speaker doesn’t mourn; instead, he calls the dead man an “imp o’ hell” and a “poor silly wretch” with a shrug of dark amusement.
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