Defeated by Fate: Death be not Proud, by John Donne i

Poetry is a voice for addressing complex ideas that humanity has contemplated for thousands of years. Poets use a variety of literary techniques and stylistic features to convey these desired ideas. A prevalent theme deliberated in many poems across genres and throughout history is death. Death is unknown, therefore exploring it through poetry attempts to alleviate some of this uncertainty. This is done in a variety of literal and figurative contexts, including hope, freedom, literal death and beauty. Illuminating death in this way helps humanity to come to terms with something often feared.

In society, death is usually eyed with consternation. In “Meditation 17,” John Donne faces his own mortality, and sees how humanity is connected as a whole. John Donne uses several literary connotations like metaphors, similes, synecdoche, allusions/personification, and symbolism to establish themes in this work.

Donne uses a serious tone when addressing Death. In lines 1 and 2, he begins with: “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so.” He directly tells Death that it is not mighty nor

Mortality is a moving and compelling subject. This end is a confirmation of one’s humanity and the end of one’s substance. Perhaps that is why so many writers and poets muse about their own death in their writings. Keats and John Donne are two such examples of musing poets who share the human condition experience in When I Have Fears and Holy Sonnet 1.

Donne reflects on there being a God and heaven being the end goal for humanity. Through his writing it is inferred that all troubles impact everyone

In this lines John Donne tells that Death does not have any reason to be proud. It is not scary, powerful and dangerous as people think. Death thinks that it has all powers to kill me but it doesn’t. Death is pleasurable, it gives more pleasure than sleep and rest. So, don’t be

In his first quatrain, Donne approaches “Death” as if it was standing in front of him. In a defiant tone, he tells him “Death be not be proud…” (1). He builds his defiance by telling “Death” that, in spite of what others may have told him, he isn’t “mighty” (2) or “dreadful” (2). The sarcasm climaxes as Donne tells “Death” the reality that those whom he thinks he has slain really aren’t dead, nor can “Death” slay this

With the concept of death being personified in Donne’s poem, a substantial remark can be left with the reader when the idea of overthrowing the power and fear of death as the topic becomes personal if one has that fear. When this is compared to the inference of the King’s power living after his death, the power of the kingdom he once had was demolished along with the civilization he once ruled. This is shown when the statue was degrading and there is nothing around the statue other than flat land. The King’s power did not live, and the concept of “All good things come to an end” (Geoffrey Chaucer) can be

Here, Donne is confronting Death to declare that he is not as immensely impactful as he thinks he is. Throughout the poem, Donne is speaking to Death and at some point he metaphorically compares Death to “rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, much pleasure” (5-6). To continue to belittle Death, Donne compares him to rest and sleep which both are nothing but peaceful and harmless. Not only are these two harmless, but Donne also mentions that when woken from these pleasurable and peaceful functions, they will “wake

It begins by talking about how people think that death is something they should be afraid of, and that death is proud of its “power”, but Donne explains that we should have no fear of it. Death thinks that it has the power to kill us, but in reality he really doesn’t. He is actually helping us, if we are Christians, to reach our end goal, heaven. If we die, then we just end our lives on this sinful and lost planet and begin our life with our savior in heaven. Donne basically spends most of the end of the poem mocking death and calling it a “slave”. He ends by saying that “Death, thou shalt die”, which reminds us that someday Jesus will destroy death and pain and suffering forever and we will live with him in

In Death Be Not Proud, John donne describes his optimistic perspective on death. His first sentence is, "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so." Right off the bat he is showing his point that death has no reason to be feared like it is. He talks to death as if it were a person saying, Death, you can't kill me. His ending is explaining, all it is, is that we simply are awake, sleep for a short amount of time, and awake eternally, with everlasting life. his poem "Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness", is also an uplifting view on death, and illness. In the first stanza he symbolises his religious beliefs. He compares himself to music saying he is God's music, or that he is to be used for God.

Donne grew up around death, such as the death of his younger brother who died of a fever in prison as well as the death of his wife who died during childbirth, these circumstances as well as his Christian belief of eternal life are likely responsible for the way Donne views death For instance, in his poem Death Be Not Proud, Donne personifies death and the speaker tells the reader to not be afraid of death because it ultimately has no power and is comparable to the type of peace felt in rest or sleep and then goes on to explain that death is more like a sleep before going into eternity. Donne writes, “One short sleep past, wee wake eternally, and death shall be no more; death thou shalt die” (Donne 13-14). Amy Cothran compares this type of message to Paul in Bible, “Donne, echoing Paul’s counsel to give us a true victory song that emboldens at the same time that it comforts”(103-104). Although Donne believes one should not fear death, he does not deny that the death of someone can have a deep effect on a person. For example, Donne’s poem A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day in centered around how death can leave one feeling as if they are dead. he writes, “For I am every dead thing” and “ I, by Love’s limbec, am the grave, Of all that’s nothing” ( Donne, 12, 21-23). The lovers death affects the speaker to the extent of him feeling as if “ ‘she is the light' and the 'body' upon whom he depended for both presence and illumination, her death has left him not only physically but emotionally emptied’ ”(Hollingsworth 94). Another poem in which Donne explains how the death of another person can deeply affect someone is in Mediation Seventeen. In this poem Donne opens talking about a funeral bell, which is a metaphor for death, he then goes on to explain “the bell calls us all” and then asks, “But who can remove it from that bell, which is passing a piece of himself out of this world” (Donne 1.12, 2.9).

Donne’s sonnet begins with an octet that addresses and describes Death as being incapable, pleasant, and powerless. To Donne, death is incapable of fully killing someone, for what death perceives as a person’s end is only sleep in terms of Christianity. Sleep is a luxury and a necessity, so it follows that death is a luxury and a necessity in order to enter into eternal life (Chippchipp1). Donne admonishes death, telling it to not be proud or think that it has the power to kill someone, because if one holds to the Christian idea of eternity there is nothing to fear in death.

“Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10)” by John Donne dramatizes the conflict between the perception and the reality of death, through the use of imagery. The speaker completely talks down the common perception of death, stating that even though many have called it “mighty and dreadful,” it really is not. The speaker compares death to sleep, which is generally an enjoyable thing. The personification of death is something that is popular in culture. Death is often depicted as a skeletal character in a black robe and scythe, also known as the Grim Reaper. Ultimately through death, one finds eternal life and death will cease to exist. In a way death is just another stage of life, but not necessarily the end.

In Donne’s sonnet “Death be not proud”, the overall portrayal of “death” is that it is something that is weak and has no control over humans or human nature. Sonnets are set up in a systematic why that aids in the poem’s analysis; Shakespearean sonnets, such as Donne’s, are comprised of three