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Death, be not proud, though some
have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou thinkest thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go --
Rest of their bones and soul's delivery!
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swell'st thou, then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more. Death, thou shalt die!
Donne's turn of phrase has become such a powerful part
of Western pop-culture that it even appears on the cover of Marvel
Comics,' The Avengers, number 56, which hit newsstands some 350
years after the poem was written. |
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John Donne (1572 - 1631)
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a more thorough background of Donne and an analysis of his works.
Donne was the son of John Donne, a prosperous London
ironmonger, and was the grandson of Thomas More . He was educated at both
Oxford and Cambridge but as a Catholic he could not take a degree.
In 1598, Donne became Sir Thomas Egerton's, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
, secretary and entered parliament in 1601. He must, by this time, have
abandoned the faith of his fathers; he could not venture into public
office as a Catholic.
.Disaster came from another direction; when he
secretly married Anne, daughter of Sir George More and niece of lady
Egerton. Egerton dismissed him and Donne wound up in prison. Donne's
hopes of a public career were at an end and, though he only spent a few
days in prison, his prospects were bleak. More allowed the marriage to
proceed after a few months and the lovers were reunited; but Donne's
private means were exhausted, and his family began to increase.
From 1602 to 1606 Donne, in the hope of resuming his career, studied canon
and civil law. Fortunately Sir George More relented sufficiently to pay
his daughter's dowry in 1608 and the household enjoyed a little ease.
Donne had not given up hope of advancement in
public life. Donne, with the support of Lord Ellesmere (Egerton, now
elevated and in a forgiving mood) approached the king. The king made it
clear that he wanted Donne in the Church and the poet submitted, taking
holy orders in 1615.
He was made a royal chaplain. His sermons made him famous and attracted
large crowds, and King James made him Dean of St. Paul's in 1621. Sadly,
his wife, Anne enjoyed only two years of Donne's eminence; she died in
1617, having borne 12 children, 7 of whom survived.
Donne suffered a severe illness in 1623 and during his recovery began to
write his Devotions, which was an acknowledgement of mortality, but he
returned to his work. Donne was beginning to run down; his health was
precarious by 1630 and on the first Friday of Lent 1631 he preached his
last sermon, Death's Duell, in the presence of King Charles 1; he knew
that he was dying. The end came on 31 March 1631.
The poetry of John Donne is, for most readers, of two kinds - the superb
love poetry and the religious poetry - and it is easily assumed that the
latter resulted from the conversion of a man who, after many trials,
rejected the nature of his younger self - the high-spirited young man of
the Inns of Court and the naval expeditions who found exquisite delight in
sex and gave us some of the finest love poems in the English language. . |