Poet Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)

He lived a long life, yet he was famous for writing epitaphs, which he published in two books: The Spoon River Anthology (1915) and The New Spoon River (1924). Curiously, his own epitaph was just as poetic:

Good friends, let’s to the fields …
After a little walk, and by your pardon,
I think I’ll sleep. There is no sweeter thing,
Nor fate more blessed than to sleep.

I am a dream out of a blessed sleep –
Let’s walk, and hear the lark.