Most headstone inscriptions are quotations from the Bible, verses from hymns or words suggested by funeral director's literature. Here is a selection of quotations from other sources that I have encountered in Norfolk. The year will be the approximate age of the gravestone although it is never known for certain how soon after death the stone was erected.
At Hevingham 1782
Stop reader let this solemn truth Your weary heart and soul engage/ A worm is in the bud of youth/ As well as at the root of age.
[Based on “Read ye that run, the solemn truth/ With which I charge my page/ A worm is in the bud of youth/ And at the root of age” William Cowper]
At Garboldisham 1811
How loved how valued avails thee not/ to whom related or by whom begot/ a heap of dust alone remains of thee/ 'tis all thou art and all the proud shall be
[from "Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate Lady" by Alexander Pope 1717]
At Northwold 1820
Bright be the place of the soul/ No lovelier spirit than thine/ Ever burst from its mortal control/ In the orb of the blessed to shine/ On Earth thou was all we could wish/ As thy soul shall immortally be/ And our sorrow may cease to repine/ When we know that thy God is with thee.
["Bright be the place of thy soul" from "Hebrew Melodies" by Lord Byron]
At Swaffham 1834
Oh! Thou Being of beings, source of all entity have mercy/ upon me thou Great Being.
[Something similar in original Latin, appears on the tomb of the Second Duke of Buckingham buried at Westminster Abbey 1687]
At Kingsway Cemetery, Downham Market 1881
O Blessed Lord whose mercy then removed/ A child whom every eye that looked on loved/ Support us, teach us, calmly to resign/ What we possessed and now is wholly thine. ["Six months to six years added he remains" by W Wordsworth]
At Denver St Mary 1885
Like crowded forest trees we stand/ And some are marked to fall/ The axe will strike at God’s command/ And soon will strike us all [William Cowper 1787]
At Burnham Sutton 1896
To will what God/ doth will, that is the only science/ that gives us any rest [Quotation Francois de Malherbe]
At Stow Bedon 1896
When I am dead my dearest/ Sing no sad songs for me/ Plant thou no laurels at my head/ Nor dainty cypress tree/ Be the green grass above me/With showers and dew drops wet/ And if thou wilt remember/ And if thou wilt forget.
[A song by Christina Rosetti]
At Churchside cemetery, Downham Market 1913
In that great cloistered stillness and seclusion/ By guardian angels led/ Safe from temptation safe from sin's pollution/ He lives whom we call dead. ["Resignation" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]
At churchside cemetery. Downham Market 1914
God's finger touched him and he slept.[Alfred Lord Tennyson]
At Burnham Market 1930
Peace peace! He is not dead he doth not sleep/ he hath awakened from the dream of life/ [Quotation from Adonais by Percy Shelley]
At South Pickenham 1967
Goodnight sweet prince/ and the flights of angels/ sing thee to thy rest.[From "Hamlet" last lines of the play by William Shakespeare]
At Houghton in the Dale, St Giles 1982
In small proportions/ we just beauties see/ and in short measures/ life may perfect be [Quotation: Ben Jonson]
At Burnham Market 1990
Only when you drink/ from the river of silence/ shall you indeed sing/ and when you have/ reached the mountain top/ then you shall begin to climb/ and when the Earth/ shall claim your limbs/ then shall you truly dance [Kahlil Gibran]
At Burnham Thorpe 1992
Thou wert the morning star among the living ere thy fair light had fled [Quotation from Adonais by Percy Shelley]
At Calthorpe, 1992
All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by
[From "Sea fever" by John Masefield]
At Burnham Market 2003
I will arise and go now for always night and day/ I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore/ while I stand on the roadway or on the pavements grey/ I hear it in the deep heart’s core["The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by W B Yeats]
At Burgh next Aylsham, 2009
Life shrinks or expands/ in proportion to our courage
[Quotation: Anais Nin]
