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Vital spark of heav’nly flame!
Quit, O quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling’ring, flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav’n opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?
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Pope expresses the Joy of death for a Christian soul which is a stark contrast to society's view of death. He has used a number of paradoxes throughout the poem to portray this view and a peculiar rhyming pattern which changes in the last stanza. Pope closes with two questions "O Grave! where is thy Victory?" and "O death! where is thy sting?" Leaving these lines to be interpreted by the reader
Mr English from Australia