Holy Sonnet 6, “Death be not proud”

John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have callèd thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,

For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee;

From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,

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,

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.

E.M. Ashford: Death is a comma. A pause.

today in family medicine tutorial, we were shown this video. my tutor let us watch almost the whole show and i think it was pretty good. For a med student point of view, the setting felt very real, albeit the unkindness of the doctors seemed to be exaggerated abit, cause personally i haven't seen attitudes that are this bad yet. but well i'm sure all kinds of people and all kinds doctors exist.

the show is about death, the topic of the week, we should be learning about as we learn about palliative care. the show brought back some sights, thoughts, smells back to me, from those days some of us volunteered at a hospice in M1 and i think Caleb was the first doctor to introduce the idea of palliative care to some of us. The poety, the sonnets brought me back to lit class with ms Leow too. and in an uncanny way, the nausea n vomiting sounds oh so familiar to myself.

I used to feel that death is just a full stop. simply that. definitely not a semicolon or an exclamation mark. but today i got introduced the idea of death is a but a comma, a pause, a mere transition between this life and after-life. makes it alot less scary and hard doesnt it?