• ISBN13: 9781476685458
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: N/A
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Publisher Imprint: McFarland & Company
• Publication Date: November 8, 2021
• Pages: 254
• Original Price: USD 39.95
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 454 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)

The graveyards of old New England hold an incredible range of poetic messages in the epitaphs etched into the gravestones, each a profound expression of emotion, culture, religion, and literature. These epitaphs are old, but their themes are timeless: mourning and faith, grief and hope, loss, and memory. This book tells the story of a years-long walk among gravestones and shares insights gained along the way. It identifies the source texts and authors chosen for these stones; interprets something of the tastes and beliefs of the people who did the choosing; offers some hypotheses on the various ways these texts were accessible to readers in remote towns and villages; gives a brief summary of the religious context of the times; and reflects on how the language and literature chosen for these epitaphs express these peoples' conflicted and evolving attitudes towards life, death, and eternity.