Death be Not Proud (EL 150)

EL 150 students, we'll be starting another short poetry unit next week. For Tuesday, this is the only poem you need to look at in advance. I'd like a half-page written reponse (feel free to blog it, but don't feel obligated, either; and if you do blog it, please hand me a prinout in class on Tuesday so I don't miss your work).

Feel free to find out what you can about Donne and this poem in particular on the Internet -- but don't quote slavishly from off-site soures. I'm interested in your own original response.

If you have good questions you'd like to post here, feel free to do so.

Herbert J.C. Grierson, ed. (1886–1960). Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the 17th C. 1921.

John Donne

72. "Death be not proud, though some have called thee"

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

http://www.bartleby.com/105/72.html