The Last Words, Christopher Orlet, The Vocabula Review
'With few exceptions, the last words of history's great players have been about as interesting and uplifting as a phone book,' Christopher Orlet writes in his survey of swan songs. From funny quips to painful petitions, Orlet publishes in his article for Vocabula--a literary review dedicated to the preservation of the language--that the great writers and thinkers of history often have more on their mind at death than how their last words will be perceived posthumously. '... After a lifetime of setting down le mot juste, Walt Whitman's last barbaric yawp was 'Hold me up; I want to shit.'' And, Oscar Wilde's last words were nothing more than an offhanded comment about a novel he'd just recently read. It makes you wonder what your own last words may be.
--Sara V. Buckwitz
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