John Keats

Keats did not invent his own epitaph. He remembered words from the play Philaster, or Love Lies-Ableeding, written by Beaumont and Fletcher in 1611. "All your better deeds / Shall be in water writ," one of the characters says. Keats told his friend Joseph Severn he wanted on his grave just the line, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

Keats tombstone reads:

THIS GRAVE CONTAINS
ALL THAT WAS MORTAL OF
A YOUNG ENGLISH POET WHO
ON HIS DEATH-BED
IN THE BITTERNESS OF HIS HEART
at the malicious power of his enemies
desired these words to be engraved
on his tomstone"
HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME
WAS WRIT IN WATER"
FEB 24 1821

Apparently Severn could not follow Keats simple instruction.