Wit - "Death, Be Not Proud"

Vivian, a graduate student, discusses the meaning and punctuation of John Dunne's "Holy Sonnet X" with her professor, Dr. Ashford. The sonnet is often known by its first line, "Death, Be Not Proud."

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Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Wit
• Scene
• Emma
• Thompson
• Eileen
• Atkins
• John
• Dunne
• The
• Holy
• Sonnets
• Death
• Be
• Not
• Proud
• Poem
• Poetry
• Professor
• Student

[AntiqueThings]

This clip emphasizes what is so powerful about poetry. In good poetry, the punctuation matters. Every choice in the prose means something.

Unfortunately I now have the terrible urge to go around saying, "Death, capital 'D'." I somehow doubt my friends would approve. 

[osip7315]

@wisdomtrek i'm interested in how you learnt to pack so many cliches into two sentences?

[boingokky]

@osip7315 Hard to accept anything, as a 'review,' if you do not spell "HOW'S" without the apostrophe, let alone capitalizing it. Pretentious, maybe; but there is nothing wrong with using grammar and using it well.

[arkian2912992]

I did this in English A1 literature HL IB

[osip7315]

the film and the play are entertainment trying to reach poetic and philosophical worlds in the usual inept way public entertainment does !

i can only suggest you read some of john donne's poetry and most importantly his life !

then you might get a gliimer of what i am on about !

your basic issue is you are trying to inscribe gravity on an insufficient support !

[oranjellofish]

@osip7315 Although I can't speak for the film, since I've only read the play, I enjoyed "Wit", and I don't think your unnecessarily dismissive review does it any sort of justice.

[oranjellofish]

@osip7315 He's consistently callous, and Kelekian, though perhaps less of a sociopath, is no less detached. He patronizes Vivian by calling her "Miss" instead of "Dr." until they commiserate over the density of their students, and shows her no sympathy over the course of the play. Neither is the play "full of educational system worship", since Vivian's approach to teaching is not at all shown in a positive light, but rather used to highlight both her previous harshness and the changes in her.