Epitaph on John Dove, Innkeeper

Epitaph on John Dove, Innkeeper - form Summary

A Comic Graveyard Epitaph

This short epitaph uses the conventions of a grave inscription to caricature an innkeeper named Johnny Pidgeon. Framing earthly pleasures as religious substitutes, the poem treats ale, beer, dram and port as sacramental acts—ablution, persecution, memento mori and celestial glory—so that drinking, not formal creed, is the subject’9s faith. The humorous, ironic voice compresses social observation and mock-piety into a few lines, turning an epitaph’9s expected solemnity into playful moral commentary about convivial life and local character.