May 9, 2009

Blast from the Past: A Look at Old Posts

Today's blast from the past is an old post from my first attempt at serious blogging. Christian Women Today has long been defunct, and was deleted completely a year or so back. I learned a lot with the blog, but I didn't have the time to devote to it back then.

Considering Dr. John Dunn - Part 1

I’d like to take a look at one of the works of John Dunn this morning.


No, I have no intention of placing a bawdy or racy poem in this blog. I know Dr. Dunn is remembered mostly for his rowdy youth and the love poetry he composed. Most of us forget the man earned his living as a preacher and is just as well known in the literary community for his Holy Sonnets as any of his other compositions. I suppose it’s likely because we’re introduced to Dunn in adolescence, when our thoughts tend to mirror his earlier work more than the “boring” sonnets about God, and death, and Heaven.

Let’s take a look at one of the Holy Sonnets this morning, number 10, to be exact.


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 picture 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.


Obviously this particular sonnet was written during one of Dunn’s high points, where he was confident in his faith. What a blessing it is to know there is something beyond the present, beyond death!

I’d like to take a look at another of Dunn’s religious poems on Tuesday. It’s not that Dunn is my favorite poet; he most definitely isn’t. However, I think a few of the ones written during a “crisis of faith” have a few things to teach us. And, I’m sure, like Dr. Dunn, we all have a few of them in our lives from which to learn and latter draw strength.

The two posts on Dunn were my first attempt at a series, and as such I was very proud of it. They were a little stiff perhaps, but being only two years out of college, I was still stuck in a very academic writing style.

No comments:

Post a Comment