Читать книгу Best Loved Hymns and Readings - Martin Manser - Страница 36

John Donne’s ‘Death, be not Proud’ ranks among the most familiar of his Holy Sonnets probably written around 1610-11. It is often quoted at funerals as a refutation of death’s triumph over life. Donne himself had no doubt about the certainty of his own eventual resurrection, even having himself painted wearing a shroud and standing upon a funeral urn as he might appear at the Last Judgement.

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 pictures be,

Much pleasure, then, from thee much more must flow;

And soonest our best men with thee do go –

Rest of their bones and souls’ 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.

John Donne (c.1572-1631)