Writing Prompt - Inspirations from the Dead

Jewel Street Cemetery, Mansfield, MA

Have you ever wandered through a really old graveyard and looked, I mean really looked, at the names, the dates, and/or the little extra something family members may have added?

There's a richness in that information. I challenge you, dear writer, to enter a graveyard (preferably an older one--they have the best off-beat stuff) and read some of the headstones. Do some math and figure out the ages. Check out the relationships of those buried nearby one another. Take note of some of the quotes chosen by the burying family included on the stones.

There's a story in there, maybe a poem, a haiku, a limerick, and/or a song.

Here's one that haunted me (pun intended.)

Jewel Street Cemetery, Mansfield, MAThe small writing on the bottom reads: Like shocks of corn that's fully ripe, He to the grave is borne. Of earthly things, a perfect type. Then let us cease to mourn.

No one talks like that anymore! This is some serious, heavy 1800 wording! Very inspirational.

Through our wanderings we also found a gravestone (in the same cemetery as featured above) of a girl who's age turned out to be eleven. Okay, nothing amiss there, UNTIL... you read that she was the wife of so and so and the grave next to her was that of an infant who died the same day. The husband went on to live a long time AND there was another wife in the same vicinity. Is this not a Decemberist song or what?

There is another cemetery near our home that is filled with sea captains and their families. How interesting is that? The names are usually fantastic as well.

I give you this gem, Fanny wife of Rufus King, born October 14, 1780, died March 4, 1867. When all the dust return to earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it…


Jewel Street Cemetery, Mansfield, MA
Let me know how it goes. I'm always interested in reading a dark and lovely tale of the dead...

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