The opening lines declare that two friends were so inseparable in life that their graves should not divide them. What follows is a grieving voice on the shore, speaking to the one who has drowned. A ship that sailed out on a calm, sunny morning is wrecked by noon — a swift, cruel turn that leaves the speaker shattered. The body is now cradled among the waves, with sea-nymphs and spirits of the deep singing a sad dirge. Their chant, full of wailing sorrow, echoes from ocean caverns while the speaker keeps a lonely, forever-weeping vigil beside the “seaweed pillow.” The mood is one of relentless, tide-like grief: personal loss is magnified into something mythic and elemental. The repetition of “Ah woe! ah woe!” and “O list! O list!” pulls you into raw, almost song-like mourning. Nature itself seems to grieve, yet the speaker remains utterly alone, left with only the sound of a far-off lament and the weight of unending tears.
Epitaph — Summary
These are two friends whose lives were undivided; So let their memory be, now they have glided Under the grave; let not their bones be parted, For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.
This morn thy gallant bark Sailed on a sunny sea: 'Tis noon, and tempests dark Have wrecked it on the lee. Ah woe! ah woe! By Spirits of the deep Thou'rt cradled on the billow To thy eternal sleep. Thou sleep'st upon the shore Beside the knelling surge, And Sea-nymphs evermore Shall sadly chant thy dirge. They come, they come, The Spirits of the deep,-- While near thy seaweed pillow My lonely watch I keep. From far across the sea I hear a loud lament, By Echo's voice for thee From Ocean's caverns sent. O list! O list! The Spirits of the deep! They raise a wail of sorrow, While I forever weep.