Joseph Willcockson

In the course of many years collecting and studying early New England epitaph verse, I have found a surprising abundance of works by Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Isaac Watts, Edward Young, and many lesser poets. Recently I was asked if Classical literature was also chosen for use on these Congregationalist gravestones. The answer is, ‘not frequently, but I have found a few examples.’ Here is one from Peterborough, New Hampshire, for which a passage from Virgil’s Aeneid was chosen.