At the round earth's imagined corners (Holy Sonnet 7) Mortality Quotes Page 1
(line)
| Quote #1 and arise, arise |
The speaker sets up the "death-as-sleep" metaphor that will appear later. This is the big wake-up call, which means there will be a whole lot of groggy dead people.
| Quote #2 All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow, (line 5) |
"O'erthrow" probably means "bring about the death of" in this line. The Biblical "flood" killed everyone on earth except for Noah and his family, and the "fire" refers to the flames of the Apocalypse.
| Quote #3 All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, |
The speaker lists all of the non-end-of-the-world-related deaths. These are all the ways that normal people can die. "Dearth" is starvation and "agues" means sickness.
