The Phone Call

Recently we have been studying poetry in my eighth grade literature class, and I for one (and I may be the only one) am really enjoying it. We have read all kinds of dark Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe poems and a few light and fun ones too. Today we read John Donne's Holy Sonnet X--one of my all time favorites. I introduced the poem by talking about a particular literary device called apostrophe--not the punctuation mark but a direct address to an inanimate object or absent being. This entire poem is an apostrophe where the speaker directly addresses Death. We had a wonderful discussion about the poem for almost 45 minutes. The students were surprised that we could spend that long discussing just 14 lines of verse. We discussed the strong Christian themes of resurrection and victory over the grave even though God, Jesus, and the Bible are never directly mentioned. One student observed that the tone of the poem was daring and almost defiant as the speaker challenges Death to try and defeat him. Towards the end of our discussion, my cell phone started vibrating. (Of course if I need to make a call from my classroom, I don't have service, but in the middle of class, my phone would start working.) One of my students astutely picked up on the faint buzzing sound in the back of the room, and raised his hand.

"Mrs. Freeman, you have a phone call. I think Death is calling you."

Hilarious!

Holy Sonnet X
by John Donne

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 soul's 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.