Images of Death in Metaphysical Poetry

1. Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so … J. Donne „Holy Sonnets” 10 Images of Deathin Metaphysical Poetry Prof. J. Safdie English 215 November 27, 2006 K. Gorka

2. Metaphysics and Death • Metaphysics • Gr. meta„after” +phúsika„those on nature” • the philosophical study whose object isto determinethe real nature of things • addresses questions such as: • What is the nature of reality? • Is there a God? • What is man’s place in the universe? • Views of death in Metaphysical poetry • Philosophical view death and existence • Religious view death and afterlife • „Romantic” view death and love

4. Philosophical View: Death and Existence • death as the end of our existence • meditation about mortality and briefness of human existence • questions: • What should we do with our time? • How to understand death? …But since that I Must die at last, ‘tis best, To use myself in jest Thus by feigned deaths to die. J. Donne „Song” … As West and East In all flat maps … are one, So death doth touch the resurrection. J. Donne „Hymn to God my God in my Sickness” … flesh is but the glass which holds the dust That measures all our time, which also shall Be crumbled into dust. Mark here below How tame these ashes are, how free from lust, That thoumayest fit thyself against thy fall G. Herbert „Church Monuments” But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near; … The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. A. Marvell „To His Coy Mistress”

6. Religious View: Death and Afterlife • dying as a payback for the Original Sin • Christ’s death on Cross and resurrection: victory over death • questions: • Why does God want us to die? • Why are we afraid of death? These are thy wonders, Lord of power, Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell And up to heaven in an hour … And now in age I bud again, After so many deaths I live and write; I once more smell the dew and rain, And relish versing G. Herbert „The Flower” Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay? Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste; I run to death, and death meets me as fast, And all my pleasures are like yesterday J. Donne „Holy Sonnets” 1 I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; Swear by thy self, that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore. J. Donne „A Hymn to God the Father”

7. Religious View: Death and Afterlife • optimistic! death as a step to an eternal union with God I die even in desire of death. Still live in me this loving strife Of living Death and dying Life. For while thou sweetly slayest me Dead to my self, I live in Thee. R. Crashaw „A Song” Dear, beauteous death! The jewel of the just, Shining nowhere but in the dark; What mysteries do lie beyond the dust, Could man outlook that mark! … [O God,] Either disperse these mists, which blot and fill My perspective still as they pass, Or else remove me hence unto that hill Where I shall need no glass. H. Vaughan „They Are All Gone into the World of Light” And in hisblessing thou [Death] art blessed, For where thou only wert before An executioner at best, Thou art a gardener now, and more, An usher to convey our souls Beyond the utmost stars and poles G. Herbert „Time”

9. „Romantic”View: Death and Love • „to die” = „to experience orgasm” (also believed to shorten life) • destructive power of unfulfilled love • bed and grave as sites of both love and death • questions: • What is life without love? • How to deal with the loss of the beloved one? • Can love transgress death? (“Till death do us part”?) Call us what you will, we are made such by love; Call her one, me another fly, We’re tapers too, and at our own cost die. . . . We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this love. We can die by it, if not live by love, And if unfit for tombs and hearse Our legend be, it will be fit for verse. J. Donne „The Canonization” When thou sigh’st, thou sigh’st not wind, But sigh’st my soul away When thou weep’st, unkindly kind, My life’s blood doth decay. … But think that we Are but turned aside to sleep; They who one another keep Alive, ne’er parted be. J. Donne „Song”

10. „Romantic”View: Death and Love When my grave is broke up again Some second guest to entertain (For graves have learned that woman-head To be more than one a bed), And he that digs it spies A bracelet of bright hair about the bone, Will he not let us alone, And think that there a loving couple lies, Who thought that this device might be some way To make their souls, at the last busy day, Meet at this grave, and make a little stay? J. Donne „The Relic” Whither, as to the bed’s feet, life is shrunk, Dead and interred; yet all these seem to laugh, Compared with me, who am their epitaph … he [love] ruined me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not. J. Donne „ANocturnal Upon Saint Lucy’s Day” When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead,… Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,… Then thy sick taper will begin to wink, … And he whose thou art then … In false sleep will from thee shrink, And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat will lie A verier ghost than I J. Donne „The Apparition” Weep me not dead in thine arms, but forbear To teach the sea what it may do too soon … Since thou and I sigh one another’s breath, Whoe’er sighs most is cruelest, and hastes the other’s death. J. Donne „ A Valediction: Of Weeping”

11. And Other Approaches… Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that, self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three. Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence? J. Donne „The Flea”