Death Be Not Proud
John Donne
Summary & Analysis
INTRODUCTION:
John Donne was the most brilliant star in the firmament of English poetry during the 17th century. Often hailed as the father of metaphysical poetry John Donne has written poetry of high standard discussing some of the abstract ideas of life, death, divine love and so on. He has primarily written two types of poetry – love poems and religious or divine poems. Some of his most famous poems are as follows:
1. The Flea.
2. The Sun Rising.
3. Death Be Not Proud.
4. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.
5. The Good Morrow.
6. The Canonization.
Death Be Not Proud:
The sonnet ‘Death Be Not Proud’ is for the people who fear death. The poet says that death is not what it looks like as it is merely a peaceful sleep.
FORM OF THE POEM:
This sonnet follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet, which has 14 lines divided into an 8-line stanza and a 6-line stanza. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza is typically ABBAABBA, and the rhyme scheme of the second stanza is CDDCEE. Most of the lines of this poem are written in iambic pentameter in which unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable
STANZA WISE ANALYSIS:
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee (a)
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; (b)
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow (b)
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.” (a)
The poet addresses a personified death, telling it not to be arrogant just because some people find death scary. In fact, death is neither of these things because people don’t really die when death comes to them.
“From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, (a)
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, (b)
And soonest our best men with thee do go, (b)
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.” (a)
The poet compares death to rest and sleep—which is like images of death—the speaker anticipates death to be even more pleasurable than these activities. According to him death like sleep is nothing more than the resting of the body. Soul becomes free thereafter.
“Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, (c)
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, (d)
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well (d)
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?” (c)
Here, death is presented as a slave to fate. The poet points out that death is associated with poison, war, and illness. Drugs and magic spells are more effective than death when it comes to rest. So the poet wants to assert that there is nothing in death which should make him feel proud.
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally (e)
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” (e)
Death is nothing but a mere sleep in between people’s earthly lives and the eternal afterlife, in which death can visit them no more. Ironically, the poet says that death of the humans is in fact the death of death. Death dies, but man becomes eternal and lives forever after that short sleep called death.
POETIC DEVICES:
John Donne's sonnet, ''Death Be Not Proud'', employs numerous literary devices, including apostrophe, personification, alliteration, and metaphor.
Personification: Personification means to attribute human features to non-human things. Donne has personified death throughout the poem, stating it should not be proud. Being proud is a human quality. Hence, death is given a human quality of having feelings and emotions.
Metaphor: There are three metaphors in this poem. The first is used in the opening line “Death, be not proud.” Here death is compared to a proud man. The second is used in the ninth line, “Thou art slave to fate.” In the last line in an extended metaphor where death is compared to the non-existent or unrealistic object.
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of the poetry such as the use of /th/ in “And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then” and /m/ sound in “Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow.”
Irony: Irony means a statement that may mean something different from, or the opposite of, what is written. Irony often expresses something other than their literal intention, often in a humorous. For example: “Death, thou shalt die.”
CONCLUSION:
All in all, we may say that ‘Death Be Not Proud’ is a poem which expresses the philosophical idea that death is not the end of life. There is life after death. Death is not something to be scared of. Death is just a short sleep which makes the soul free from the material world. John Donne wants to affirm that the soul embarks on a new journey of spiritual life after death.
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