Showing posts with label Donne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donne. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2008

Not "Done" with "Donne"

My mother, Melba, just died on January 12th. She went peacefully in her sleep & is asleep in Jesus. She is released from her dementia (which was actually caused by heart disease, not Alzheimer's). She quite likely had low grade mental issues for many years, from which she is also released. No more on-going physical degradations that came from mini-strokes & a silent heart attack & strained lungs. So I can only say with the poet John Donne, "Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. . .Death, thou, too shalt die!" (You can find the entire poem in earlier posts.) BTW, Melba liked purple.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Death Be Not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so:
For those who thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much more pleasure than from thee must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go---
Rest of their bones and souls' 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 they stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death thou shalt die!
---John Donne (alt.)