Poetry and Music Friday
One of the aims of this blog is to explore the Gospel’s implications for and impact on all of life. Redemption is not just for the soul but the mind and the creative aspects of life. I regularly try to set aside some time and space each Friday to encourage the exploration of creativity. I try to do this by linking to the photography of Joe Kennedy, Will Turner, Timmy Brister, Steve McCoy, Joe Thorn, along with the Friday Flickr Group in which they participate. In addition to that I have a regular rotation of poetry, visual art and music. The poets, artists and musicians in question may or may not be Christian. The main criteria is that they pursue their craft with excellence and in some way have encouraged me to think biblically about creativity. You may or may not initially see the connection. If not, please ask. Otherwise, enjoy. No visual art today, just focusing on poetry and music.
Today’s featured poem is “Death Be Not Proud” by Jacobean poet and preacher John Donne (1572-1631). I have been meditating on this poem for a couple of days now. One of the plenary sessions I went to at the annual NANC Conference was about ministering to the dying and bereaved by David Powlison. This poem was mentioned and I remembered studying it in college, where I was very close to having a double-major in Public Relations and English Literature. Why I didn’t go the extra semesters and get the Literature degree is beyond me now, but hindsight is always more clear, isn’t it? Enjoy:
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
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.
This week’s musical offering comes from the “collaborative project of Otto Totland (Deaf Center / Type Records) and Huw Roberts (Serein).” Both men are pianists, so that plays heavily in this free release. Their self-titled EP is a nice electro-acoustic release exploring the balance between ambient electronica, folk-tronic and acoustic instrumental folk music. Very pretty stuff.
Thank you for reminding me of this wonderful poem! My students studied it this past year, wrote sonnets inspired by it, and one even memorized it and recited it to the class and later to the whole school. This also reminds me of an opportunity I had last year to hear a professor read an entire John Donne sermon in the 17th-century chapel of Lincoln College, Oxford; very moving and challenging and inspiring! Donne is timeless, isn’t he?
Admonit,
Donne is certainly timeless. In a graduate seminar last semester I was introduced to his sermons (we have some 150 or so extant), which are also fantastic. According to one scholar we read in the course, his parishioners expected (at minimum) hour long sermons every Sunday, and, on special holy days, a three-hour sermon.
Brigham Young University maintains an online transcription database of most of Donne’s sermons: http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/donne
Thank for letting us know about Nest. They are incredible! Very very nice.