But the quatrain has a much wider range than this funereal limitation, and one such example of epitaph will suffice.
Only one English poet of our own day, and that a minor one, has attempted to make the poem of four lines a specialty--that is William Watson.

He has written a whole volume of such little poems, but very few of them are successful.

As I said before, we have not enough good poems of this sort for a book; and the reason is not because English poets despise the short form, but because it is supremely difficult.

The Greeks succeeded in it, but we are still far behind the Greeks in the shaping of any kind of verse.

The best of Watson's pieces take the form of philosophical suggestions; and this kind of verse is particularly well adapted to philosophical utterance.
Think not thy wisdom can illume away The ancient tanglement of night and day.
Enough to acknowledge both, and both revere; They see not clearliest who see all things clear.
That is to say, do not think that any human knowledge will ever be able to make you understand the mystery of the universe with its darkness and light, its joy and pain.