Epigram on Said Occasion
written in 1784
Epigram on Said Occasion - form Summary
Biting Epigrammatic Wit
This short epigram uses direct address to Death and blunt, comic irony to stage a mock bargain. In coarse Scottish dialect the speaker claims they would have gladly "wad exchanged the wife" for the living man, and even after his burial insists Death take the wife's body instead. The poem compresses a household quarrel into a macabre joke, turning grief into satirical misanthropy and exposing social attitudes toward marriage. Its brevity and epigrammatic punch rely on shock, dialectal voice, and a quick reversal that leaves the reader both amused and unsettled.
Read Complete AnalysesO Death, had'st thou but spar'd his life, Whom we this day lament, We freely wad exchanged the wife, And a' been weel content. Ev'n as he is, cauld in his graff , The swap we yet will do't; Tak thou the carlin's carcase aff , Thou'se get the saul o'boot.
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