One of the most underrated movies.

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.

Beautiful, this scene is worth rewatching over and over again! Such a marvelous master class 💙

I enjoyed this film. The poetry of John Donne is beautifully utilized~

I have thought about this clip many times since I saw this movie about 5 years ago.

"I went back to the library."

One of the best films I have ever seen, I highly recommend.

Ms. Atkins, you are AMAZING!!!!!

One of my favorites 😊

I always saw this poem as John Donne trying to best death denouncing it as nothing and never considered the removal of barriers between "this life and the next". I suppose that is why I am a scientist.

He even mentions the resurrection of the body in one of his poems "At the round earth's / imagin'd corners, blow /Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise /From death, you numberless infinities /Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go; /All whom the flood did, and fire shall /o'erthrow, /All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, /Despair, law, chance hath slain." And the particles of those bodies are really going to be scattered, so he has a lot of faith.

He had a morbid fascination with death. He came from a religious tradition that sees the whole of life as a preparation for death: we die a bit each day, or, as the scientists says, all things tend toward entropy. He lived during the plague years in London, preached sermons after the plague to his parishioners, all of whom had lost friends and family. He posed in his burial shroud, and is reputed to have slept in his coffin. His wife died giving birth to their 12th child.

Interesting how Donne examines Death being extinguished when a person dies. Now, it’s difficult to imagine death as an entity especially one that might be considered to not exist after there is nobody left. I suppose the biggest question might be that death could in fact exist in the afterlife. Just because eternal life is promised doesn’t mean that it won’t involve many states of existence where something like death is required. Think about it.

@osip7315 Actually, if anything, the play criticizes the lack of human empathy that can be found within the medical system. Vivian's doctors treat her as a research subject rather than as an actual person, and Jason in particular shows a downright sociopathic inability to relate to another's anxiety and need for comfort, not to mention his contempt for other people in general and his decision to study cancer because he views it as a challenge, rather than out of any desire to help others.

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

I did this in English A1 literature HL IB

Also, he came from a religious tradition that believed in the resurrection of the physical body on the final judgment day.

Oh

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 !

@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.

@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.

actually i prefer the herbert grierson editing of this poem rather than helen gardner's ashfords analysis misses the point of the poem which is actually not really expressable!

The English subtitles are awful !!

But why take such a structuralist/formalist approach to a poem she clearly recognized as metaphysical (i.e. poetry interested in extreme philosophical conceits, not literal linguistics)? Couldn't a semicolon draw together two opposing sides -- the dichotomy of life and afterlife -- separated by nothing more than the sliver of the death of Death? Couldn't a semicolon work better than the "flowing pause" of a comma? Her reading is right given her theoretical bias... but that is not the end.

S'woh ! language is use, try reading a bit of chomsky or ee cummings !!! conducting a brass band ain't going to take you into the 21st century ! : o )

grasping at straws to portray death as nothing to be feared. It has also been my opinion that Donne was in fact afraid of death to write such a piece. However I know nothing of his life other than he was religious.

it's a pretentious film, full of medical and educational system worship *r^ p! hows that for a review !

@osip7315 Actually, if anything, the play criticizes the lack of human empathy that can be found within the medical system. Vivian's doctors treat her as a research subject rather than as an actual person, and Jason in particular shows a downright sociopathic inability to relate to another's anxiety and need for comfort, not to mention his contempt for other people in general and his decision to study cancer because he views it as a challenge, rather than out of any desire to help others.