My Glass Is Run...
Greetings Ghost Fans,
Ever wonder what some of the non-anagram sayings on the graveyard tombstones say? Some are just old sayings like Memento Mori (Remember Death), but then there is also My Glass Is Run. The message is simple enough but where did it come from?
The line comes from a poem called Tichborne's Elegy. It was written by Chidiock Tichborne shortly before his death for practicing Catholicism in a time when doing which in England was a punishable offence.
Ticheborne's Elegy
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain;
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen;
My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I want to give GREAT THANKS this week to Dan Olson for doing the research of this topic, pretty much all of the hard work.
Ever wonder what some of the non-anagram sayings on the graveyard tombstones say? Some are just old sayings like Memento Mori (Remember Death), but then there is also My Glass Is Run. The message is simple enough but where did it come from?
The line comes from a poem called Tichborne's Elegy. It was written by Chidiock Tichborne shortly before his death for practicing Catholicism in a time when doing which in England was a punishable offence.
Ticheborne's Elegy
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain;
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen;
My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I want to give GREAT THANKS this week to Dan Olson for doing the research of this topic, pretty much all of the hard work.
posted by Ghost Relations Dept. at 1:29 PM
1 Comments:
And he even spelled my name right! Thx for the hat tip.
A couple of footnotes: "My Glass is Run" was a cliché on tombstones, it's just that this cliché has a specific literary source. Also, the "glass" is an hourglass, not a glass of wine or other drink. "My time is up," in other words.
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