DEATH BE NOT PROUD

John Donne (1572-1631) was a man of passion and contradiction, and this was reflected in his life and poetry. Raised a Catholic, he left the Catholic Church, and, after a period of womanizing, he married Anne, the love of his life, and they had seven living children. He joined the Anglican Church of England, and eventually became Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1621 during the reign of King James l, the publisher of the 1611 King James Bible. Death Be Not Proud, A Hymn to God the Father, and Batter My Heart are three of his more noted sonnets.

He is perhaps best known for the following lines from Meditation XVll of his Devotions, lines quoted by Ernest Hemingway in his powerful book For Whom the Bell Tolls:

"No man is an island entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod be washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were,
as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine own were.
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee."


Death Be Not Proud
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom 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 pleasure; then from thee much more 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 thy stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die. ~1620


A Hymn to God the Father
Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done;
For I have more.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sins their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallow'd in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done;
For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I've spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by Thyself that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as He shines now and heretofore:
And having done that, Thou hast done;
I fear no more. ~1620


Batter My Heart
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
but is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor even chaste, expect you ravish me. ~1620


Poetry