Lesson video

Hello, everyone, Mrs. Wilkinson here with lesson two out of four on "Death, be not Proud." So today we're going to be looking at comprehension, and that simply means understanding.

So we're going to understand the words in the poem, we're going to understand the ideas in the poem.

So before we get started, make sure you're ready for learning.

Make sure you have your pen and your pencil and some paper and a ruler to underline your headings, that you have a nice quiet space if possible, and that you've switched off any distractions, there's no devices going and, or anything else around that could disturb you.

So if you need to pause the video, do that now, otherwise, we will begin.

So here we go.

So we're going to, first of all, look at what we did last lesson.

So we're going to recap those contextual factors, those things that were happening at the time that might have influenced John Donne's poetry.

Then we're going to listen to the poem, and then we're going to look at understanding the poem.

And then we're going to think about the poem's ideas, and we're going to write about them.

Don't forget, you need to do the quiz at the end, just to check how much you've learned in the lesson today.

First of all then, recapping from last lesson.

So contextual factors, remember, are things that were happening at the time the poem was written that might have influenced the poet or the writer.

So think about things that were happening to everybody at that time, and also think about things that were happening to Donne himself, Donne personally, in his family life, and in his personal life, so what he did for a living.

So what I want you to do now is I want you to write this subheading, so you can pause the video in a moment and write this subheading, John Donne, Contextual Factors.

And then you're going to write down any of those things that you can remember from last lesson.

And then you're going to resume the video when you're ready.

So hopefully, you remembered some of these things from last lesson, that about 400 years ago, which was when Donne was alive, everybody lived by religious rules.

People believed that God had created the world and people lived by the rules in the Holy Bible.

Donne himself was a priest who wrote poetry.

He was very religious himself and he wrote the poetry to help him understand sort of religious ideas.

At that time, many people died young.

This was for lots of reasons, including mainly, sort of disease and bad hygiene, but also, life was tough.

Donne's own wife and five of his 12 children died very young.

And so he did experience quite a lot of sort of death in his family.

But a very important idea for this poem, and for this lesson is that people believed in the eternal afterlife, which, if you remember, means the life that was after death that went on forever.

Now we're going to listen to the poem.

So in the picture here, you'll see a representation of Death, which is called the Grim Reaper.

And this is used in lots of stories.

In the poem, Death is personified, which means that he's made into a character.

So it might help you to visualise Death as the Grim Reaper.

Now let's listen to the poem.

"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 souls 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." So as we read through again, we're going to look at all the words and make sure we understand them individually.

So I want you to pause the video now, and write this as your subheading, so Understanding the Poem and then resume when you're ready.

So now we're going to have a look at the language, at the actual words, and make sure that we understand them.

So if you look at the green boxes on the side there, these are really important words because you'll come across them a lot, 'cause they're in Shakespeare and other texts from this time.

So thee and thou mean you, thy means your, and thou shalt means you will, you shall, okay? So if you don't know those already, do make a note of those because they will be very useful in the future.

So we're going to look now at the lines of the poem, we're going to go through and just make sure we understand the whole thing.

So Death, be not proud, we already did a little bit of translation on this one because it's actually the title of the poem, and if you remember that means Death, don't be arrogant, don't be too big for your boots.

So those some have called thee, so those some have called you mighty and dreadful.

So mighty means really powerful and dreadful, full of dread.

It means kind of terrifying for thou art not so, so thou art means you are, for you are not so.

So to sum that up, we say, you are not, Death, you are not powerful and terrifying.

So let's look at lines three and four.

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow die not.

So, so those, those people who you think you have overthrown, so the thing that people are, they're going to die, in this case, die not.

So they don't die.

So sometimes you'll see that, to die not, it's just a, you just swap the words around, it means they don't die.

Poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

So the canst would be just can't.

So nor yet, so still, you can't kill me, thou, you can't kill me.

So what you're going to do now is you're going to copy out this text and you're going to fill in the gaps.

And that will be a translation of those, of the first two lines, and when you've done all of this, you'll have a translation of the whole poem.

So pause the video now and fill in those gaps.

So well done, if you got Death, don't be arrogant because although some people think you're powerful and terrifying, you are not.

Let's have a look at lines three and four, so I'm filling in those gaps, pausing the video now.

So well done, if you've got because those you think are dying, don't die, poor Death, you can't even kill me.

So moving on to line five.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be.

So if you think about when somebody is resting or sleeping, they look a little bit like they're dead because unless you can't, if you can't see them breathing, they could be dead.

They're just lying there very still, aren't they? So which by thy pictures be, it means if you took a picture, for example, of somebody asleep, you wouldn't necessarily know if they were just asleep or if they were dead.

So what Donne is saying here is that that Death is very much like rest and sleep and those things give us pleasure.

So we get refreshed from that, don't we? We get rejuvenated.

So he's suggesting, perhaps, that Death might provide something like that, too.

So from thee, from you, much more must flow.

So something good might, must come from Death.

So perhaps he's suggesting that they rest in peace.

So they might get peace from Death.

And soonest our best men with thee do go.

And soonest means too soon and too soon, our best men and women with thee, with you, do go.

Rest of their bones, so this means leaving their bones behind, leaving their bodies behind without their bodies, and their soul will be delivered.

So soul is another word for spirit.

So you're going to have a go now at filling in the gaps in this text, in this lot, in this paragraph.

So pause in the video now.

So well done, if you got, you are a lot like rest and sleep, which are pleasurable.

So you will bring us even more peace.

So lines seven, eight, you know what to do.

So well done, if you've got too soon, our best people will die, leaving their bones behind and setting their spirits free.

Obviously, if you haven't got it quite right, do make sure that you make any changes so that you have got the right words down or something very similar.

So let's go onto line nine now, thou art, so you are, slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men.

So if somebody is a slave, they have to do what they're told.

They don't have any choice about anything.

So Death is a slave to fate and chance, kings and desperate men.

So fate would mean, you know, it's just that like what happens to a person? So they might happen to get a disease or they might happen to have an accident.

So fate and chance and kings, in those days, kings were very powerful and they could choose whether somebody lived or died and desperate men, so desperate men, you know, they need, they might need to be violent to sort of get their own way or something.

So Death was actually a slave to all of these things, okay, didn't make its own decisions.

So in line 10, and dost with poison, war and sickness dwell.

So that means does, and dost means he lives with, he does live with poison, war and sickness and dwell means to live.

And poppy or charms can make us sleep, as well.

So 9, 11, so poppies were used to make a drug called opium, and opium was very popular at the time, it's a drug and charms, charms is magic.

People believed in magic and they believed that a magic spell could be put on you that would make you go to sleep.

So poppies and charms can make somebody sleep, as well as Death and better than thy strokes, so thy stroke, that means by thy hand.

So by your means, so better than Death.

Why swell'st thou, then? So when you're proud, you swell out your chest.

So it means why are you so proud of yourself then? So filling in the gaps for lines nine and 10, pausing the video while you do that.

So well done, if you've got fate, chance, kings and desperate men decide who dies, not you, and you have to live with poison, war and sickness.

Line 11 and 12, pausing the video, filling in those gaps.

And well done if you've got drugs and magic can put us to sleep better than you can.

So why are you so proud? So we've just got a quick recap on the meaning of eternal afterlife.

So just see if you can remember, we'll just have a look at the screen there, and then let's see what it was.

So yeah, option three, so well done if you got option three, when you die, there is another life that goes on forever.

So we're going to have a look at the last two lines, which is usually called a couplet.

And you're going to have a look at that and see if you can work out, if you could translate that into a modern way of saying it yourself.

So just have a look at it and see if you can translate it.

So pause the video now, have a go, do your best, have a try.

So after one short sleep past, so the sleep is in the past, okay, so after a short sleep, we wake eternally.

So we wake forever and Death shall be no more.

So Death will not exist.

And it means kind of in heaven and Death, you will die.

Thou shalt means you will die.

So if you haven't got that down, write that down now, make sure that you've got a correct version.

So we're going to check our understanding of the poem.

So which of these statements about Death is true? So pause the video now, have a little think about them and then we'll go through the answers.

So let's think about option one.

Death is presented as powerful and terrifying.

So give me a thumbs up if you think that's true and a thumbs down if you think that's false.

So well done if you got thumbs down, Death isn't presented as far as powerful and terrifying, it's presented as the opposite.

Option two, Death is compared to rest and sleep, which are nice things.

So thumbs up, thumbs down.

And yes, yes.

He's compared to rest and sleep, which are nice things.

Number three, Death is less powerful than fate or chance.

Is that true or false? And that is true, yes, that is true, because he doesn't have any choice, does he, over who dies? Fate and chance do, and number four, Death does not exist in the afterlife, so Death will die.

And that is also true, excellent.

So that's the last two lines of the poem, is that Death will die, sorry, Death will die in the afterlife.

So well done if you've got those ones correct.

So now you're going to write another subheading.

You're going to pause the video and you're going to write you subheading, exploring the ideas in the poem and then resume when you're finished.

So you're going to answer the following questions.

Why does Donne think Death should not be proud? What pleasant things has Donne compared Death with? And what does Donne believe happens after we die? So if you need to, you can check back in the video and to remind yourself of anything.

You're going to start all your sentences with Donne, and you're going to write in full sentences, so they explain everything.

So pausing the video now.

Pause the video now, and resume when you're finished.

So for the first one, why does Donne think Death should not be proud? You could say Donne thinks Death should not be proud, as he is not as powerful and terrifying as he thinks he is.

Or if you were doing something a little bit more developed, you might have something like this.

Donne thinks Death is less powerful than many other things, such as fate, chance, kings and desperate men.

So he should not feel too proud of himself, and you can see there that the bit that comes directly from the poem, the quote, or the evidence, fate, chance, kings and desperate men, is in inverted commas there.

So that's always what you do if you actually quote from the poem.

So the second question, what does Donne compare Death with that's pleasurable? So a nice, easy, straightforward answer would be Donne compares Death with sleep and rest, which are pleasurable, and again, the sleep and rest are in inverted commas there.

Or Donne suggests that because Death looks a lot like rest and sleep, which are pleasurable, Death may also bring us peace.

So that's developing the idea a little bit.

And finally, Donne believes that after we die, we go to the eternal afterlife.

And the second one is, perhaps, a little bit of a better answer because it explains what that actually means.

Donne believes that after we die, we live forever in the afterlife where Death does not exist.

So that tells the person who's reading your answer, that you know what that means.

Well done today.

Great work.

You've worked incredibly hard.

The only thing that's left to do now is to do the quiz to prove to yourself all the fantastic learning that you've done today, well done.