The eNotes Blog After the Dash Last Words of the Politically and HistoricallyInfamous

After the Dash Last Words of the Politically and HistoricallyInfamous The thing that is so fascinating about a persons final words is, of course, that the person rarely knows those   utterances will be his or her last. One of my favorite poems is W.S. Merwins For the Anniversary of My Death: Every year without knowing it I have passed the day When the last fires will wave to me And the silence will set out Tireless traveler Like the beam of a lightless star Then I will no longer Find myself in life as in a strange garment Surprised at the earth And the love of one woman And the shamelessness of men As today writing after three days of rain Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease And bowing not knowing to what. Here are ten of those now-famous, or at least, interesting, last words: 1.   Marie Antoinette Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose.  Ã‚  after she accidentally stepped on the foot of her executioner as she went to the guillotine. 2.   Dominique Bouhours  (French grammarian)   I am about to - or I am going to - die: either expression is correct. 3.   King George V Bugger Bognor.   to his physician, who had suggested that he relax at his seaside palace in Bognor Regis.    4.   Joseph Henry Green (English surgeon who became the literary executor of  Samuel Taylor Coleridge) It’s stopped.  -   upon checking his own pulse. 5.   Emperor Julian You have won, O Galilean.     attempted to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire. 6.   John F. Kennedy No, you certainly can’t.  -   in reply to Nellie Connally, wife of Governor John Connally, who said to Kennedy before he got in the convertible, â€Å"You certainly can’t say that the people of Dallas haven’t given you a nice welcome, Mr. President.   7.  Mao Zedong I feel ill. Call the doctors.    8.   Saki (pen name of Hector Hugh Monroe)   Put out the bloody cigarette!!   to a fellow officer while in a trench during World War One, for fear the smoke would give away their positions. He was then shot by a German sniper who had heard the remark. 9.   Mary Surratt Please don’t let me fall.   before being hanged for her part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. She was the first woman executed by the United States federal government. 10.   Voltaire Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.   when asked by a priest to renounce Satan.