Life: 1572-1631
Jack Haseman Austin Guerrettaz Courtney Morris
Isaac Hoffman

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
• Born in London, England
• Studied at Oxford University
• He was an Anglican priest
• Poetry contains startling contrasts
• Founder of Metaphysical poets
• Death was a major part of his life (p. 508)

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are 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.

• Metaphysical Sonnet
• Uses metaphysical conceits
• Has 14 Lines and 10 syllables per line
• The Sonnet form is a variation of a Petrarchan Sonnet
• Rhyme Scheme:
• Abbaabbacddcaa
• Literary devices:
• Eye rhyme
• Metaphysical conceit (p. 513 l. 5-6)
• Tone: Hopeful

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
• Fathered twelve children
• Five of the twelve died before they reached twenty years old and two of those died at birth
• Married his boss’s seventeen year old daughter when he was twenty-five.
• She ended up dying at the age of 33.

WORKS CITED
•
• McDougal Littell Literature: British Literature. Evanston, IL:
McDougal Littell, 2009. Print
• Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 30 Sept.
2014.