An epitaph is any short piece of writing commemorating a death. The form originated in ancient Greece and Rome as inscriptions on gravestones meant to remember the accomplishments and character of someone who had died. This could be as brief as a name, or as extensive as a short poem.
In the early modern period, epitaphs became popular again, and poets began publishing collections of them. The mid-sixteenth century saw the first English collections of epitaphs appear in print. These were all dedicated to the same person, and written by multiple authors. Later, authors began including epitaphs in their collections of poems, which is how “On My First Daughter” appeared in print.
Epitaphs range from heartfelt to generic, tragic to witty. Since their early modern revival, they’ve been a popular form for poets, with some of the most famous ones written by Emily Dickinson and Benjamin Franklin. Some even parody the genre. For example, in “Universal Epitaph,” the Romantic poet John Clare writes,
No flattering praises daub my stone,
My frailties and my faults to hide;
My faults and failings all are known—
I liv'd in sin—in sin I died.
And oh! condemn me not, I pray,
You who my sad confession view;
But ask your soul, if it can say,
That I'm a viler man than you.
The poem subverts the reader's expectations by refusing to praise the deceased. Instead, it emphasizes that everyone, living or dead, is profoundly flawed. Clare’s poem is much more confrontational than Jonson’s, but both poets are thinking about what it means to write within a well-established genre. Clare mocks convention, encouraging a more honest perspective on human nature. Jonson mostly follows convention, only to break with it in the final two lines—a move which undermines the poem’s offer of comfort, and instead intensifies the feeling of grief it summons.
