Assignment Directions: All responses demonstrate deep analysis and shares new perspectives or resources to further the conversation (with citations), ask probing questions to stimulate discussion, or thoroughly responds to questions posed
Response 1: Donne is telling us several things about death in Sonnet 10. He begins by saying death is not mighty or proud, meaning death is not the fearsome and confident ruler we often think it to be. Donne says that resting and sleeping are pictures of death; they give us a glimpse of what death will be like because they are similar but temporary rather than final like death. Donne argues that because we find pleasure in resting and sleeping, we will therefore also find even more pleasure in death, because it is the ultimate form of rest. This idea parallels Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, where Hamlet describes death as being like sleep. However, Hamlet fears death because he does not know what truly lies on the other side of death, which he describes as the "dreams" death may bring.
Donne then describes how everyone dies, no matter how great they seem to be on earth (Sonnet 10, line 7). Everyone is a "slave to fate" and will die in some way or another, whether by poison, war, illness, or some other fate (Sonnet 10, lines 9-10). However, Donne ends this sonnet by implying the hope and joy we find through salvation in Christ. In the second-to-last line he describes death as a short sleep from which we will wake eternally, coming into eternal life where we will never die again (Sonnet 10, line 13). He concludes with a triumphant cry of Jesus' victory over the grave: "And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die" (Sonnet 10, line 14).
Response 2: The text keeps referring to how God did not by any means, have to die. He chose to die willingly, but this was not required of Him in the slightest way. A quote that reminded me of this truth says, "But oh! the worst are most, they will and can, Alas, and do, unto the immaculate, Whose creature fate is, now prescribe a fate, Measuring self-life's infinity to a span, Nay to an inch. Lo, where condemned he bears his own cross, with pain, yet by and by when it bears him, he must bear more and die" (Donne, p.58). This quote really describes how nobody has to die except for Jesus. If we accept His gift of eternal life, that life is waiting for us and we just have to believe and walk in it. God made a way for us where there was no way, and He continues to do that by giving us a new chance each day!