Epitaph

To you, my parents, I send on
This little girl Erotion,
The slave I loved, that by your side
Her ghost may not be terrified
Of the pitch darkness underground
Or the great jaws of Hades hound,
This winter she would have completed
Her sixth year had she not been cheated
By just six days. Lisping my name,
May she continue the sweet game
Of childhood happily down there
In two such good old spirits' care.
Lie lightly on her, turf and dew:
She put so little weight on you
Martial (trs James Mitchie)

Today we walked a 5 mile loop around Wickham Market finishing at the church - where I was struck by the plangent difference between the sorrow innate in the inscription on this stone, and its decay..