Life and Death
‹ 4 · Outline · 6 ›
5.The proper time and manner of dying
5a.Old age as the ripe season for death
See also: Time 4c · Old Age 6a · Nature 3b
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 316–317Prophesied gentle death from the sea in smooth old age.read · scan
Ecclesiastes; or, The PreacherVol. 44
- p. 348–349Allegory of old age and dying: dust returns to earth and spirit to God; all is vanity.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old AgeVol. 9
- p. 46–47Old age is a natural decay like the fall of fruit, not to be resented by the wise.read · scan
- p. 47–48Old age is likened to the end of a long journey on which all must embark.read · scan
- p. 49–51Lists four reasons old age is thought unhappy, including weakness of body and nearness to death, to be examined.read · scan
- p. 54Old age's loss of bodily strength is answered by using what one has; Milo's lament is mocked as trivial.read · scan
- p. 54–56Cicero cites Cyrus, Metellus and Nestor as old men who kept vigour, and himself at eighty-four still active.read · scan
- p. 69Death is not to be feared and is common to all ages; the old man has already lived long.read · scan
- p. 70Death of the old accords with nature, like ripe fruit falling; young men's deaths are violent; he nears death like a port.read · scan
- p. 71Weariness of pursuits brings satiety of life and the ripe time for death.read · scan
- p. 74He would not renew his childhood; life is an inn not a home, with limit to enjoyment.read · scan
- p. 75–76Life should end at its proper time; nature sets a limit; old age is the last act of the drama.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 358–359Simeon, having seen the Lord's Christ, departs in peace.read · scan
Epictetus, Fragments Attributed to EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 183–185Contrasts a life entangled with fortune with one with virtue; prefers a shorter, nobler life to a longer, lesser one.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 211He died full of years after a fall in old age, and is lamented.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 220–221End the journey content, like an olive falling when ripe.read · scan
- p. 301Death is nature's dismissal, like an actor released; life's three acts are the whole drama.read · scan
William Caxton, Prefaces and EpiloguesVol. 39
- p. 8Age creeping on him, feebling the body, weary hand and dim eyes.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to DieVol. 32
- p. 19–21Nature leads us gently to death through gradual decline of age, making the final step easier than a sudden change.read · scan
George Gascoigne, A Lover's LullabyVol. 40
- p. 195–196Aging speaker lulls his youth, eyes and will to rest as age and furrowed face arrive.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33
- p. 355The aged chief says he is called for daily by death.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 255Regan tells Lear that old age puts nature on the verge of her confine and needs guidance.read · scan
- p. 281Only the world's mutations make us hate it; else life would not yield to age.read · scan
Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47
- p. 564Elixir supposedly renews age, making fourscore men children like the ancient patriarchs.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 292–293Browne on length of life: weary of the sun at thirty, no wish to outlive vice or relive his hours; age increases sin.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 331Old age and gentle death described; Adam will neither fly death nor prolong life; live well, neither love nor hate life.read · scan
Sir Richard Steele, The Spectator ClubVol. 27
- p. 87He conceives hope from his decays and infirmities, as one nearing the object of his wishes.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 171Savage old men would die unnoticed, almost without perceiving it themselves.read · scan
John Collins, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 592–593Faces old age and death serenely, smiling at wrinkles and not clinging to the brink of the grave.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble LordVol. 24
- p. 416Old age is a sharp burden, yet no man lives too long who acts with spirit and suffers with resignation.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 331–332The rose should live long and die calmly, its beauty returned to Earth.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 404–406Old Attinghausen sees himself as a fading shadow moving toward life's end.read · scan
- p. 411–412The old baron mourns that all his contemporaries are in the grave.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 614–615The aged celandine stands helpless in the storm, an image of old age taking what youth had no need of.read · scan
- p. 647–649Simon's decline through age and sickness; few months of life left, all companions dead.read · scan
- p. 658–659He meets an extremely aged man, described as stone or sea-beast.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 703–704Aging body and drooping gait; life without hope becomes only a warning that makes us grieve.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 632–633Villains may die and plague be survived, but old age is an incurable disease.read · scan
Oliver Wendell Holmes, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1365–1367Old man's companions are in the tomb; he is the last leaf.read · scan
- p. 1367–1369Old man's loved ones lie in the tomb; he is the last survivor, awaiting death.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1107–1108Death completes the vessel; youth is approved by age.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 116–117An extremely aged, withered Indian man retains life in feeble frailty.read · scan
5b.Untimely death of the young
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 18Hui's life was cut short.read · scan
- p. 33Yen Hui's life was cut short, leaving no one who loves learning.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 281–284She goes to the tomb as bridal chamber, life's span unfilled.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 232The brevity of the youth's life and funeral rites.read · scan
- p. 282–287Evander asks to die rather than outlive his son.read · scan
- p. 305Euryalus's death is likened to a flower cut by the plow.read · scan
- p. 355Pallas lies pale like a flower newly cropped, cut off in youth; funeral vests prepared.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 262–264Death is untimely for those engaged in immortal works; Fannius dies with his history unfinished.read · scan
- p. 273Untimely death of a lovable girl who faced illness and dying bravely.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 215–216Fer rogain laments the shortness of Conaire's life, comparing him to a blossom or infant cut off early.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 434–436The Cardinal, the Duke's beloved son, dies of fever from the marsh air after a brief illness; the loss is deeply felt.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 298Oswald dies lamenting untimely death; Edgar is sorry only that he had no other death's-man.read · scan
Ben Jonson, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 290–291A brief life like a one-day lily may be perfect; length does not make worth.read · scan
- p. 299–301Elegy for a boy actor dead at thirteen, too good for earth, whom Heaven keeps.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 294–295Lucan: the gods conceal the happiness of death; those dying young should not complain.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4
- p. 16–18Elegy laments a primrose, a blossom killed before its time, introducing the poem on an infant's death.read · scan
- p. 27Elegy on a young noblewoman dead at twenty-three in childbirth; Atropos cuts short her life and her unborn child's.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 72The Fury with abhorred shears slits the thin-spun life before fame is reaped.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 368–369Lament for a friend's early death after a short mortality.read · scan
John Dryden, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 386–387Her beauty and life were destroyed by cruel destiny and disease, as with Orinda.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 15–17The Poet longs for lost youth and its creative vitality, with the old man reflecting on age versus youth.read · scan
- p. 193–195She laments that being so young she must die so early.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 269–271Elegy on early death: youth, health and beauty fall, and the multitudes in graves existed only to die.read · scan
- p. 271–274Death cuts down the brother like a morning rose blasted by noon winds; the bard longs for the grave.read · scan
- p. 402–403Asks why worth has a short date while villains ripen grey; mourning until we tread the shadowy pathread · scan
- p. 549–552Asks what charm can turn Death's dart aside; purity did not save Jessie though one seraph remains.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 670–672Lucy's early death; her lifelessness now rolled round with rocks, stones and trees.read · scan
Sir Walter Scott, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 747–749Laments for Duncan dead in his prime, compared to fading dew and foam; also Rosabelle drowned and the Saint Clair dead.read · scan
Charles Lamb, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 736Elegy for an infant who died at birth; puzzles why the young die while the old linger.read · scan
Leigh Hunt, Deaths of Little ChildrenVol. 27
- p. 285Deaths of infants are gentle griefs that ultimately soften.read · scan
- p. 287–288Death arrests the child into an eternal image of youth and innocence; without infant deaths children would seem secured adults.read · scan
Thomas De Quincey, Levana and Our Ladies of SorrowVol. 27
- p. 321–322Death of children, recalled by God, leaves fathers in deeper darkness and mourning.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 437–442Some men grow old in youth and die early from pleasure, study, toil or broken hearts.read · scan
George Gordon, Lord Byron, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 785–787Mourns a young woman's early death; the beloved is only common earth that rots, yet dreamless sleep is envied.read · scan
- p. 789–791Elegy for one snatched away in beauty's bloom; tears are vain since death heeds no distress.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 857–858Adonais lies dead, Death and Corruption await; the young poet's early death is mourned as a broken lily.read · scan
Thomas Babington Macaulay, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 917Charon leads all ages to death and refuses any delay; death parts the living from loved ones.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Twenty-Four Years AfterVol. 23
- p. 402George lies dying at nineteen, emaciated, with a hollow, death-smitten voice.read · scan
William Allingham, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1116–1117Little Bridget stolen away dies of sorrow.read · scan
5c.The deathbed and the test of a whole life
See also: Happiness 2a
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 320Achilles tells Agamemnon that death's doom visits all men born; better to have died gloriously at Troy than pitifully.read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 25Dying, Tseng-tzu says a dying man's words are true; he has walked carefully unscathed to the end.read · scan
Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8
- p. 40–41Adage that no life may be called blest before its peaceful end.read · scan
Sophocles, Oedipus the KingVol. 8
- p. 253Life's happiness can be judged only at its closing day, at the boundary of death.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 822–823What a man meditates on at the hour of death determines where he goes; the faithful die in peace.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 12Scipio's life was so fortunate and glorious that death, sudden and painless, could not have bettered it.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 86–89He wishes to die in his wife's arms if restoration is hopeless.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 148Hopes to be found working on his Will when disease and death come.read · scan
- p. 181A life so used makes death a noble, happy end.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 211He comes to life's end pure, tranquil and ready to depart.read · scan
- p. 232Dying is one of the acts of life, to be done well.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, That We Should Not Judge of Our Happiness Until After Our DeathVol. 32
- p. 5–6Croesus, Pompey and others illustrate how the last day of life reveals a man's condition.read · scan
- p. 6–7Death is the hardest act, when masks fall and a man must show what he truly is.read · scan
- p. 7The manner of dying judges all one's prior life; Montaigne aims to die quietly and constantly.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33
- p. 320Martinez dies at Puerto Rico after long wait, confessing his travels.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 94At the port of death, health's cogitations return and repay past pleasures; death-bed repentance is mockery of God.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 203–204He must die soon; one who thinks of death and judgment will die well.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 304–306Edgar tells the despairing Gloucester that men must endure their going hence as their coming; ripeness is all.read · scan
- p. 310–314Edmund pants for life and repents, wanting to do good despite his nature.read · scan
John Donne, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 303–305Virtuous men pass mildly away, lovers should part without noise or tears.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 852–853Dying men reflect on death: Ferdinand dismisses pain as philosophy, and Bosola sees the once-mighty ending as a little point.read · scan
Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old DebtsVol. 47
- p. 941Overreach is judged mad beyond recovery.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415Manoa learns Samson is dead; death frees him as ransom, and he asks whether death crowns or shames a life.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 405–406Wishes to die unlamented and unmarked.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 503–504Levet's painless death at eighty, freed at once from the vital chain.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509Wish to die at home; the good man sinks to the grave with resignation.read · scan
- p. 509He stands at the deathbed, driving away despair and anguish.read · scan
Susanna Blamire, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 580Live so that at life's last sleep you smile while all around weep, as you wept at birth.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 330–331Egmont has lived fully, enjoyed each day and urges Ferdinand not to dread death; the departed still live for us.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 458–459He grieves at seeing his country's ruin as he dies.read · scan
- p. 471–472Gessler dies, bleeding fast; Harras urges him to leave earthly things and make his peace with Heaven.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 57The king faces his deathbed and dies in comfort once his promise is givenread · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 448Manfred dies saying it is not so difficult to die; the Abbot wonders where his soul has gone.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 127Mill's father died of consumption in 1836, mind vigorous to the end and unshaken in his convictions, regretting only unfinished work.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1075–1078The dying bishop broods on the grave, his deathbed and the brevity of years, imagining lying entombed through centuries.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 403Contrasts a life without elevation and a death without serenity or majesty.read · scan
William Ernest Henley, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1209–1211Henley hopes his death will be serene like sunset, a gathering to the quiet west after work done.read · scan
5d.Sudden death versus prepared death
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 723Deities announce the deaths of Alara Kalama and Uddaka before they could hear the doctrine.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 315Asked the best death, Caesar says 'a sudden one'.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 93Life is vain and death uncertain; sudden death would find him unprepared.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 11–12Merchant prepares his will and ablution, accepting death rather than withhold the secret.read · scan
- p. 16He carries his grave-clothes and awaits certain death.read · scan
- p. 266A husband is lowered alive into a pit with his dead wife, awaiting death.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 230Death is uncertain and sudden; one should live each day as if dying, and prepare always.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 306–307Death on the Enchanted Ground comes gently in sleep, without violent distemper.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 827–829Poet wishes death might steal on him like sleep, cheek growing cold beside the sea.read · scan
- p. 849–850The tree dies painlessly in sleep to live again in a happier form; the poet hopes his own death be so.read · scan
Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1421–1422Asks for a tender, gentle release of the soul from the strong hold of mortal flesh at death.read · scan
‹ 4 · Outline · 6 ›