These four short words his epitaph,
Sublimely simple, nobly plain;
Who adds to them but addeth chaff,
Obscures with husks the golden grain.
Not all the bards of other days,
Not Homer in his loftiest vein,
Not Milton's most majestic strain,
Not the whole wealth of Pindar's lays,
Could bring to that one simple phrase
What were not rather loss than gain;