Robert Burns

Epitaph

Epitaph - meaning Summary

Status Reversed in Death

This brief epitaph compresses a sardonic observation about death and social equality. Addressing the grave, the speaker imagines worms occupying the same place of repose once enjoyed by lords and lairds. The line upends social prestige by showing earthly rank erased after death, suggesting bodily decay is the ultimate equalizer and mocking aristocratic privilege. The tone is darkly humorous and succinct, turning a funerary inscription into a political, anti-elitist comment about mortality and the futility of worldly status.

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Lo worms enjoy the seat of bliss Where Lords and Lairds afore did kiss.

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