a comma, a pause

I once mentioned the film Wit starring Emma Thompson in a 2016 blog post and I remember seeing the made-for-TV film while still mourning my mother's passing due to cancer. With my father's declining health and my bleeding heart that is worsened by my inability to be physically beside him (irksome passport processing times), I take comfort in John Donne's Death Be Not Proud: 

[05 July '17, I have now edited the punctuations below based on the "Gardner" edition]

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.

In the scene above, Emma Thompson recalls her exchange with her metaphysical poetry mentor. It helped me appreciate the essence of John Donne's poem. I could relate to Emma Thompson's desire to best understand the poem in an academic sense, but I could also very well relate to the professor's intention for Emma Thompson's character to apply the meaning of the piece. Carpe diem.