Tuesday, February 21, 2017
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The death of my old friend and first principal made me think last evening of John Donne and his poem or as some refer to it as the Holy Sonnet 10, "Death Be not Proud" Charlie hired me to teach English and the different genres of Literature to young people in the Bronx NY in 1969. I remember him coming in to observe me one day when I was teaching the students
John Donne's famous poem, "Death be not Proud"
I started my lesson that day that “Death Be Not Proud” presents an argument against the power of death.
I said he, Donne, addresses Death as a person, in poetry that is known as Personification. Donne makes it/him into a character through personification. The speaker then warns Death against pride in his power. I told my students Donne warned death that such power is merely an illusion, and the end Death thinks it brings to men and women is in fact a rest from world-weariness for its alleged “victims.” the people of this world.
The poet criticizes Death as a slave to other forces: fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. He tells "Death" you are not in control, for a variety of other powers exercise their volition in taking lives. Even in the rest it brings, Death is inferior to drugs. Finally, the speaker predicts the end of Death itself, stating “Death, thou shalt die.”
Charlie liked my lesson that day and the follow up discussion the students had and even Charlie got involved in the conversation with my students that day about death and whether or not we should be afraid to die.
The final thought questions in my lesson plan that day provided material and ideas that my students could use to develop their own personal voice and critical thinking skills while writing a short essay on their views about life and death and the Christian message of eternal life.
Today I believe Brother Charles sees the face God and I personally believe because of that he continues to live on as many of my good friends and loved ones do. I believe and I know I told my students that day, even though I was still very young then myself, that I too one day will say to death "Death Be Not Proud "; for in the end you shall die and I will live, for I shall too, see the face of God and live forever in peace and in eternity!
God bless you Charles "Robert Kamarad" Marcellin 1935 - 2017, My first principal and my friend. ~ Dudley Davis ~
"Death, be Not Proud"
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 art 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.
My follow up lesson to the one above followed a few days later, another of John Donne's famous sonnets: from his book of Meditations "For Whom the Bell Tools"
'"No Man Is An Island"
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
John Donne
And then the thought also came to my mind .... "Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
I remember during that lesson and that class that I told my students; that the funeral bell tolling refers to all people's mortality and that when a funeral bell was heard it was a reminder that we are each nearer death; or that it was a signal that we are all one, and that when one dies, "we all die a little". Yes I thought to myself when my friend died this weekend 'I like all who experience the loss of a friend or a loved one, died a little too!'
"Ask not for whom the bell Tools, it tolls for thee."
Tomorrow I will travel to the city and pay my last respects to my friend.
