Wit

This was our department's lunchtime movie this week in line with our oncology theme for the month. A poignant and powerful film about life, death and wit. Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson) is an uncompromising English professor battling with stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer. She engages the audience in a narrative monologue as she reflects on her life and death while undergoing rigorous treatment for her cancer. Terribly depressing but a film that I believe all health professionals should watch.

Holy Sonnet X

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 picture[s] be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt 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.
- John Donne (1572-1631)