Holy Sonnet 10 Response

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art 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[s] 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. 

-----x-----

Death is very questionable. No one really knows what happens after you die, because once you're dead you can't really tell anyone alive; however people close to death, kind of have a taste of what death feels like. Donne states that Death isn't really as scary as people think he is. Your death is pretty quick, and after that, Death is gone. We're all scared of Death because really, its a new experience and we don't know at all what it is like. Whenever I'm trying something new for the first time, I get a little nervous (especially if that situation happens to be somewhat dangerous) because I don't know exactly what is going to happen. But once I've done it once, I know what it feels like and I either love it and want to do it again, or pledge to never ever do it again. I guess Donne feels that Death is not that big of a deal, and if you die, you die for a reason. It's hard to really say how I personally feel about death, but yes, I would say I don't welcome it yet.

Hurray for First Posts

Sonnet 75 Analysis

So maybe I'm not exactly the  best at interpreting poems, but I'll give it my best shot...

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize,

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eek my name be wiped out likewise.

Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.

Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue,

Out love shall live, and later life renew.

What I think this means, is that sometimes something will be remembered for a short period of time, before being forgotten. Sometimes you may be famous, but then as the years pass you are forgotten. Think of all those One Hit Wonders. Spenser is writing a women's name he most likely loves in the sand, but it is washed away by the tide. The tide symbolizes how the women feels, when Spenser says "and eek my name be wiped out likewise" means they'll probably both forget about each other. But Spenser wants something  immortal that won't be erased. When he says "but you shall live by fame" and "in the heavens write your glorious name" he is saying that she won't be forgotten to him even though she'll probably move on.