Death Be Not Proud

Robert Frost and William Shakespeare have been celebrated by many people because of their ability to express themselves through the written word. Here we are years after their deaths analyzing these fascinating poems about life and death. It’s clear they had similar thoughts about this subject at the time of these writings, even though their characters could not have been more opposite. For both poets, life is too

The memoir Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther , written in 1940, is the most popular American death memoir. This tells a heartbreaking, yet inspiring story about a young fifteen year old boy struggling with a brain tumor. The story begins when the boy, Johnny was first diagnosed with the deadly illness and ends with the unfortunate result. The story is narrated by the father of Johnny who describes the struggle for himself and Johnny’s mother, whom he is divorced from. Although Johnny had this terrible illness which has impacted his whole life as well as the lives of his family, he still stayed positive. He focused on the good in life rather than the negatives of dying. Gunther has inspired others by sharing his son’s journey, he has shown that not all

When the subject of death is addressed by poets Larkin and Abse they imply that death is a certain and predetermined demise to our lives. However through analysing there style of poetic writing, readers can appreciate their different attitudes towards death. Larkin appears accepting of death, acknowledging fate in a realistic way. Abse however is emotionally impacted and overall unaccepting of the part it plays in our lives.

The first poem is ‘Book Ends’. This poem shows us how the death of the

Donne conveys how religion is a central idea through the use of many religious references throughout the holy sonnets. In ‘Death Be Not Proud’, Donne makes a religious reference to Jesus, ‘Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee’, expressing how religion was an underlying theme when handling many issues. When the two texts are studied in alliance, it allows the responder to draw a better understanding of the themes presented in ‘W;t’. This theme, science VS religion, has been emphasised due to the contrasts between Vivian and Donne and their context.

Death is a spiritual experience that is flush with taboo connotations. When a loved one leaves this life for the after there are tears and grieving. This occurrence has been used countless times throughout history to commemorate the passing of a loved one, this makes it difficult to produce a piece of poetry that discussed death in a way it has not been discussed before. In The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse poem 67 which will be referred to as “The blackbird calls in grief”, poem 108 which will be referred to as “There are three ways to await death”, and All That is Left…by Michael Hartnett discuss this taboo topic in new and interesting ways. These poems are distinct because of the way that the author represents death. These poems are related and similar while being vastly different.

Many people equate death to finality. Donne gives death an identity. In “Death, Be Not Proud,” Donne uses Death, in the proper name form, instead of death. Because Death is now a being, the speaker of the sonnet can talk to it. The speaker challenges death.

Write a critical commentary comparing and contrasting the two poems ‘Death’ and ‘It was not Death, for I stood up’

The last line in the poem “and since they were not the ones dead, turned to their own affairs” lacks the emotions the reader would expect a person to feel after a death of a close family member. But instead, it carries a neutral tone which implies that death doesn’t even matter anymore because it happened too often that the value of life became really low, these people are too poor so in order to survive, they must move on so that their lives can continue. A horrible sensory image was presented in the poem when the “saw leaped out at the boy’s hand” and is continued throughout the poem when “the boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh…the hand was gone already…and that ended it”, this shows emphasis to the numbness the child felt. The poem continues with the same cold tone without any expression of emotion or feelings included except for pain, which emphasizes the lack of sympathy given. Not only did the death of this child placed no effect on anyone in the society but he was also immediately forgotten as he has left nothing special enough behind for people to remember him, so “since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs”. This proves that life still carries on the same way whether he is present or not, as he is insignificant and that his death

“Death be not proud” by John Donne personifies death, as its title aptly prescribes. Giving death human traits allows the writer to blast him with colorful images full of sarcasm and a tone of defiance. The ultimate message of the author provokes the human soul to resist the fear of death.

People would not want to hear that their loved ones merely gave up and died passively. This poem in itself is a celebration of life, the poem is not only about death but it is an affirmation of life. To further emphasise the points being made Dylan Thomas utilises a wide range of literary devices. Parallelism is used from lines seven to fifteen to juxtapose the different attitudes of the so called “genres” of men at their death. This is used to outline that if you continuously lead one set type of lifestyle whether it is as a “wild man”, a “grave man” or a “good man” you will not be satisfied when your time comes to die. The only true way to be satisfied is to live a life of balance; only with a good contrast can you be at peace.

Both the “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson contain age-old themes. These themes focus on inevitable feelings and events of life; love and death. Although both “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contain the two themes, they differ greatly in how they are presented and what they represent. In “Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” a husband traveling away from his wife is consoling her.

Poetry is an art form that has often been highly regarded. It brings together some of the most complex forms of writing in the English language. Two poems that focus on the same topic may sometimes, have completely different views and provide perspectives that may not have been considered by the other. Two of these Poems are Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by Roger McGough and On Death by Anne Killigrew. The former poem by Roger McGough talks of how the speaker does not wish to die the peaceful death of an elderly person but rather the chaotic death of a young man. In death is nothing at all the speaker proposes that all should be as happy as before his death, and not view it in such a negative and secretive light.

“The Bustle in a House” by Emily Dickinson (653) is a poem that uses the death of a loved one and turns it into how the domestic duties must go on and utilizes that as a source to cope with the grief caused by the depressing situation. Similarly, “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden (762-763) is also a poem about death in which is told in a man’s perspective who is mourning the loss of a lover who has died. Although “The Bustle in a House” and “Funeral Blues” share death as the comparable theme, both poets go about it in separate ways. Both poems utilize the same sound devices to create imagery, however “Funeral Blues” usage of structure, syntax, and symbolism is demonstrated more effectively in order to convey the way the speaker processes death.

In many forms of literature, death can be represented physically or mentally in characters. In all stories involving death, death becomes inevitable. In “Out, Out-” by Robert Frost, death is the physical state of the boy and is an accident full of fright, while in “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen, death is the mental state of the narrator and the monotony of his life became after losing his legs; however, both poems illustrate the idea that life continues after one’s death.