TY - JOUR T1 - Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness JF - BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care JO - BMJ Support Palliat Care SP - 273 LP - 273 DO - 10.1136/bmjspcare-2017-001371 VL - 7 IS - 3 AU - John Birtwhistle Y1 - 2017/09/01 UR - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/7/3/273.abstract N2 - Since I am coming to that holy room Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore, I shall be made thy music, as I come I tune the instrument here at the door And what I must do then, think here before. John Donne’s sonnet ‘Death be not proud’ is a favourite reading at our funerals; but his ‘Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness’ is one of the great poems in the language. According to his friend Izaac Walton it was written on Donne’s deathbed,1 though it more probably relates to his illness of 1623. Either way, he thought he was at death’s door. The stanza quoted … ER -