"Death, be not proud"

"Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but they pictures be,

Much pleasure - then, from thee much more must flow" (4-6).

John Donne's "Death, be not proud" was a very nice poem for a variety of reasons, some of which are not nice.  For one, the title of them poem immediately told me that the poem was an apostrophe towards death - or atleast I hope so, since this is the first time that I have noticed a work being an apostrophe.  Also, since this poem is fourteen lines, my English teacher taught me that it is probably going to be a sonnet with a call to action in the last six lines.

The title conveys the message that the speaker will be telling us all the reasons that death is not as mighty as it thinks it is.  I smell personification and lemon cleaner, the latter being more prevalent.  The above lines did not make sense to me until I started typing that last sentence, but now I actually find the excerpt quite humorous.  Let me just paraphrase them for you:

"Dear death, you cannot kill me, because

I, like everyone, enjoy naps

and death is just a long nap."

This, my dear friend, is flawless logic if I have ever heard any.  The speaker does not fear death per se, but the speaker is definitely trying to rap his mind around the idea that death is not something that should be considered so... deadly?  Let me explain (I am getting graded on that part after all).  If the speaker fears death - which is predestined by fate or just blind chance (a.k.a. inevitable) - then what happens after you die?  See, this is where the call to action happens!  The speaker actually gives me the answers in a barrage of paradoxes - thanks for making it more difficult on me.  Since death is just a nap, and everyone wakes up from a nap, after death there will be nothing for the speaker to fear then.

P.S.  Did John Donne just pass Emily Dickinson in the latest label war?

Brave New World - Six

"The group was now complete, the solidarity circle perfect and without flaw.  Man, woman, man, in a ring of endless alternation round the table.  Twelve of them ready to be made one, waiting to come together, to be fused, to lose their separate identities in a larger being" (pg 80).

In an apostrophe to Ford, twelve humans from the society ask for unity.  Ford is like their version of God, and this "ring of endless alternation" seems to be what reminds me of a ritual calling for the spirits with some old lady in a really long dress - all that is missing seems to be a glass ball to see through.  Another small detail is that they make the sign of the T, which represents our version of the Sign of the Cross, only is used to represent the Ford T Model - which is when this societies time system became effective.  The ritual is very feasible with the chants, dancing, and prayer leading up to the tangible feeling of an out-of-this-world spirit.  This could allude to the Last Supper, where the twelve (possibly conveying the Twelve Apostles) followers pass the cup.  Ironically, one is doubtful.  Bernard Marx could still become the Judas of the story who undoubtedly ends the cycle of the caste system.  Marx is further portrayed in this ceremony as a blushing fool who is not fully convinced on the necessity of the World's ethics and values.  The personality traits so far displayed in Marx (e.g. doubtful, timid, and judgmental) seem to characterize him as an outcast who could very likely be a foil characer, but I cannot tell with whom yet.  If I had to guess (I like to predict things as you may be able to tell), Henry Foster would be his opposite since he seems so confident and he also is very active in the science and manufacturing of the embyos.