John Donne Poem 2

John Donne "Death, Be Not Proud"





Death, be not proud, though some have called thee


Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;


For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,


Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.


From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,


Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,


And soonest our best men with thee do go,


Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.


Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,


And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;


And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well


And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?


One short sleep past, we wake eternally,


And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.



John Donne in "Death, Be Not Proud" creates the theme of death should not be feared as he uses an apostrophe, metaphors, and rhyme to create a hopeful mood that although death my take away our physical essence we shall be eternal. In the poem Death is personsified, through use of the apostrophe as the speaker addresses Death. The speaker's tone is poignant as he is sympathetic to death. This is evident throughout the poem particularly For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrowDie not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me which implies that Death is pathetic because he thinks he has power but really he doesn't and the speaker feels sorry for Death. The emjambment though some have called thee---Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; emphisizes the idea that the speaker has more authority than Death,and that there is a difference between the appearance of a Mighty and dreadful Death versus the reality of death as this poor being. This is further implied through the metaphor of Death to a slave. The comparison suggests that Death does not control himself and therefore has a master; by suggesting that Death has a master one can pity Death as he has no choice in what he does, but also it reassures others that Death is not to be feared because it has no real power of its own.
This poem follows many of the same themes as other metaphysical poets in that it suggests an eternal life. In the contradiction on the last line of death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die implies that as we wake eternally, that there is an afterlife and once in that afterlife you can not die again and so for that one can see how little death is. Donne also catalogs all the different ways one can die and dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell implying how death can have many forms and it is all Fate and Chance that men die but he is reassuring and hopeful that death is not the ending but rather our sould continue forward even if our physical bodies are no more - rest their bones. Donne creates a hopeful mood as he presents death as pleasure, in the same way that one can receive pleasure from rest and sleep, it is only a beginning abd in comparisons and apostrophe one comes to accept that death will come but one does not need to fear it because there is always something beyond it.