In the edition you chose, this profoundly simple meaning is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation:Not semicolons.
" And Death", capital D...
"shall be no more;" semi-colon.
"Death," capital D, comma...
"thou shalt die!", exclamation mark.
If you go in for this sort of thing, I suggest you take up Shakespeare.
Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets returns to the Westmoreland manuscript.
Not for sentimental reasons, I assure you, but because Helen Gardner is a scholar.
It reads:
" And death shall be no more," comma...
"Death thou shalt die."
Nothing but a breath, a comma, separates life from life everlasting.
Very simple, really.
With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something to act out on a stage with exclamation marks.
It is a comma. A pause.
In this way, the uncompromising way, one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say?
Life, death, soul, God...
past, present.
Not insuperable barriers.
Just a comma.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wit
a quote, on John Dunne's Death Be Not Proud, from a stimulating play/movie adaptation.
Labels:
death,
Death Be Not Proud,
John Donne,
life,
quote,
wisdom,
Wit
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