His Last Scene But Not My Last Post

When you think of poetry, it is people like William Shakespeare and John Donne that are the cause behind your prejudice in thinking poetry is short yet over-complicated and cannot be understood. Here is where you're wrong. In John Donne's poem "This is my play's last scene" from his 19 Holy Sonnets, the meaning can be easily deciphered from the poets strange language. A good read-through of the poem and just about anyone can see that the poem discusses the idea of death. He speaks of how his body and soul are disjointed as his soul rises to heaven and his body remains in the earth. If that isn't clearly someone dying then I have no idea what else it could be.

The first four lines paint how he is approaching his eminent death:

"This is my play's last scene; here heavens appoint

My pilgrimage's last mile; and my race,

Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,

My span's last inch, my minute's latest point"

Even the title gives away the meaning of the poem here. If it's the last scene of a play, then that means the play is ending, just like his life. However, like many good poets, he reiterates his point in multiple ways. He speaks of how his "pilgrimage" is in its "last mile". His journey is coming to an end. His "[life] span's last inch" is upon him. The next two lines are clear yet again on how death will "unjoint" his body and soul. 

While, the first part of this poem is clear, the next two lines caused me a bit of confusion. Lines seven and eight read:

"But my'ever-waking part shall see that face

Whose fear already shakes my every joint"

I assume his "ever-waking part" refers to his soul, since ever-waking basically means always awake. However, I had trouble discerning what the "face" is. One thought I had is that his soul will see his dead body's face, because he says that the "fear already shakes [his] every joint". Another possibility that crossed my mine is that he will see the face of death himself. Perhaps he fears death or believes death to have a terrifying face. 

The final six lines continue on how his soul will rise to heaven and his body will remain on earth. He also adds how his sins will "fall", which I think means that his sins are forgiven. He finishes his poem with the line:

"For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the devil".

Overall, I feel the poem gives off a feeling of relief as if he is grateful that his time had finally come. There is no sense of sadness or fear that he is dying; more like contentment. It is a relaxing viewpoint that his soul will ascend into heaven. The language is what gives me this feeling. It isn't so much the word choice that makes him seem content, but rather the lack of word choice. He never uses words with negative connotations other than gluttonous death, fear, hell, evil, and devil. Despite these words being present, the surrounding language negates any negative feelings that may arise. For example, when he mentions "gluttonous death" in line five, he mentions in line six that he will "sleep a space". Here, instead of being fearful or saddened that death is coming for him, he is more at peace that he will be able to sleep. If he wanted to instill fear into the poem, he could've mentioned how death would be dragging his soul down to hell or that he will never be able to rest easy again. However, we get the opposite, thus eliminating any feeling of sorrow or regret.

I really enjoyed this poem. I feel that it wasn't too hard to comprehend, but still offered enough complexity to be torn apart in greater detail and illustrate a deeper meaning than what appeared on the surface.