take my hand precious lord // hannah schofield
howdy, fellas,
sad but not sorry to see this semester come to an end, so let's get at it and finish it up, shall we?
Instead of going off into my normal string of thoughts I would like to pose a question that I want to elaborate on. Feel free to comment if you all have different/similar standpoints or opinions on it!
Question: Did John Donne viewing his illness through a religious lens change the way he coped with the illness itself and his process with coming to terms with his impending death?
A serious illness such as the one that held Donne captive has a way of forcing a sick individual to seriously consider all aspects of their life and whether they are truly standing as the person they want to be. In Donne's case, the thought processes associated with religion gave him a sort of focal point to escape from the pain and anxiety that he was ridden with. Instead of being bogged down in depressing thoughts of mortality and physicality, he could focus on his spiritual well being to steer his thoughts toward hope and eternal life. The light that he found in God balanced out everything that was going wrong for him and proved to free him of earthly stressors. Personally, I believe his situation would have been much more despairing had he not come to terms with it through a religious lens!
What do you guys think?
Also, speaking of my blog's title, B.B. King's version of this old, gospel classic is worth a listen and it related to how I viewed the text.
Commented on: Zelda's & Breanna's
sad but not sorry to see this semester come to an end, so let's get at it and finish it up, shall we?
Instead of going off into my normal string of thoughts I would like to pose a question that I want to elaborate on. Feel free to comment if you all have different/similar standpoints or opinions on it!
Question: Did John Donne viewing his illness through a religious lens change the way he coped with the illness itself and his process with coming to terms with his impending death?
A serious illness such as the one that held Donne captive has a way of forcing a sick individual to seriously consider all aspects of their life and whether they are truly standing as the person they want to be. In Donne's case, the thought processes associated with religion gave him a sort of focal point to escape from the pain and anxiety that he was ridden with. Instead of being bogged down in depressing thoughts of mortality and physicality, he could focus on his spiritual well being to steer his thoughts toward hope and eternal life. The light that he found in God balanced out everything that was going wrong for him and proved to free him of earthly stressors. Personally, I believe his situation would have been much more despairing had he not come to terms with it through a religious lens!
What do you guys think?
Also, speaking of my blog's title, B.B. King's version of this old, gospel classic is worth a listen and it related to how I viewed the text.
Commented on: Zelda's & Breanna's
I don't think it changed the view of his on-coming death. From the way I understood it, and I could be wrong, John Donne was always a believer. I don't think it changed his view of his death to look at it through a religious lens, but I think it changed his viewpoint of death as a concpet. He befan to recognize death on more than one-person scale.
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