Epitaph
Heap not on this mound Roses that she loved so well; Why bewilder her with roses, That she cannot see or smell? She is happy where she lies With the dust upon her eyes.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Heap not on this mound Roses that she loved so well; Why bewilder her with roses, That she cannot see or smell? She is happy where she lies With the dust upon her eyes.
The speaker—likely the buried woman herself, since this is an epitaph—asks the living not to cover her grave with roses. She loved them once, but now they would only bewilder her. The point is blunt: she can no longer see or smell anything.
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