poem notes's video: A Thought on Death - Anna Letitia Barbauld

A Thought on Death -Anna Letitia Barbauld When life, as opening buds, is sweet, And golden hopes the spirit greet, And youth prepares his joys to meet, Alas! how hard it is to die. When scarce is seiz’d some valu’d prize, And duties press, and tender ties Forbid the soul from earth to rise, How awful then it is to die! When, one by one, those ties are torn, And friend from friend is snatched forlorn, And man is left alone to mourn, Ah! then, how easy ’tis to die! When faith is strong, and conscious clear, And words of peace the spirit cheer, And vision’d glories half appear, ’Tis joy, ’tis triumph, then to die! When trembling limbs refuse their weight, And films, slow gathering, dim the sight, And clouds obscure the mental light, ’Tis nature’s precious boon to die! Source: The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld Edited by William McCarthy and Elizabeth Kraft The University of George Press 1994 A Thought: To die. What does it mean? Look—when we talk about death we are dreaming. I have seen many a man die, but man is so limited that he has no understanding for the beginning and end of his existence. Mine—still mine as yet—and yours! Yours, O my beloved! Then, one moment more, and separated…divorced from one another, perhaps forever? No, Lotte, no. How could I possibly perish? How could you pass away? You and I…we are! Perish? What does it mean? Again, nothing but a word. An empty sound with no feeling for my heart. -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe The Sorrows of Young Werther