StoryTitle("caps", "For My Own Monument ") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As doctors give physic by way of prevention, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Mat, alive and in health, of his tombstone took care; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For delays are unsafe, and his pious intention ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "May haply be never fulfill'd by his heir. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then take Mat's word for it, the sculptor is paid;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That the figure is fine, pray believe your own eye; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet credit but lightly what more may be said, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For we flatter ourselves, and teach marble to lie. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet counting as far as to fifty his years, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His virtues and vices were as other men's are;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "High hopes he conceived, and he smother'd great fears, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In a life parti-colour'd, half pleasure, half care. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor to business a drudge, nor to faction a slave, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He strove to make int'rest and freedom agree; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In public employments industrious and grave,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And alone with his friends, Lord! how merry was he! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now in equipage stately, now humbly on foot, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Both fortunes he tried, but to neither would trust; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And whirl'd in the round as the wheel turn'd about, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He found riches had wings, and knew man was but dust.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This verse, little polish'd, tho' mighty sincere, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Sets neither his titles nor merit to view; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It says that his relics collected lie here, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And no mortal yet knows too if this may be true. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fierce robbers there are that infest the highway,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So Mat may be kill'd, and his bones never found; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "False witness at court, and fierce tempests at sea, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So Mat may yet chance to be hang'd or be drown'd. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If his bones lie in earth, roll in sea, fly in air, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To Fate we must yield, and the thing is the same;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And if passing thou giv'st him a smile or a tear, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He cares not—yet, prithee, be kind to his fame. ", "") ?>
Poet("Matthew Prior", "1664–1721") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>