Epitaph on Wee Johnie
written in 1786
Epitaph on Wee Johnie - meaning Summary
A Mocking Funerary Notice
This short epitaph addresses a reader directly and bluntly reports that Death "murder'd Johnie" and his body lies low because he "ne'er had ony" soul. In plain, colloquial Scots the poem compresses a darkly comic moral: Johnie is physically dead and spiritually lacking. The voice feels wry and dismissive rather than mournful, turning a funerary text into a terse judgment that both records death and satirizes the deceased’s character or fate.
Read Complete AnalysesWhoe'er thou art, O reader, know, That Death has murder'd Johnie; An' here his body lies fu' low - For saul he ne'er had ony.
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