Samuel Johnson

"That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner."
                                              - Johnson: Letter to Sir Joshua Reynolds



born this day in 1709

said to be the last
great autodidact

lexicographer
word stalker
author

his definitions delightful
his table manners atrocious

no oranges in the trees for him
but bleak Highland oats
and thistled wit

he regretted his mistakes
bravely continued to make them
humbled not cowed
spoke too much aloud

married
him young to her
found compulsive sound
years later
old wife's death

his tongue undone

love
whittled him

shaved down to widower
and stroke
he
left life
cold

old man

wished he'd remembered
sooner