Analysis Of Death Be Not Proud

943 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: John donne conceit in poetry discuss

Picture that you are in the school hallway and saw your bully smashed up against the lockers with a petrified look on his or her face. Once one has seen their own bully that has their own personal bullies to dread every day, one may derive a level of great pleasure and satisfaction from this. Unfortunately, this does not change the fact that your bully will continue to torment you on a daily basis. John Donne uses this imagery to describe how he perceived Death. Death should not be taken lightly. Conversely, Death is not as tough as one might perceive him to be, after all; death is rather weak then powerful and mighty given that it is only a much stronger version of sleep and is constantly serving others like a slave. The poem "Death be not Proud," opens with: "Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful."(Donne 1-2) Donne clarifies that Death has no room to brag or be proud of whom he is and that he should not be feared by anyone.
The speaker is demeaning Death in the poem and appears as conceited and confident. He assertively faces Death and shares his thoughts as if he were conversing with an actual person. Many people fear just the thought of Death because they believe Death to be the end. However, Donne makes the speaker fearless due to his strong Christian beliefs. The speaker considers him to be an honest Christian and remains sure that he will make it into heaven. By being such a devotee of Christianity, death in none other than a passage into another “ higher” life and there is no purpose in dreading it. The thing with faith is that it does not guarantee one a first class ticket into heaven, but the speaker knows that his faith is strong enough and is confident that God will not let him down. The...

... middle of paper ...

...ng to fear. Although one might argue that Death is mighty and dreadful, and that Donne is using such vivid imagery to make Death seem like he is nothing to run away from but to make Death more accepting in one’s life. We cannot push one's faith on one another, but Donne makes it clear that faith will help get through Death and defeat him. One defeats Death by awakening to an eternal life and that causes Death to be over, making man win. He believes that one’s faith is an eternal existence which makes Death meaningless. It is speculated throughout the poem by the use of literacy terms and vivid imagery, that Death is the entrance to eternal life. The final last words: "Death, thou shalt die"(Donne 14), gives the assumption that Death has died and he no longer exist. , as well as giving one the idea that Death should be the one afraid, and not the one to be feared.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Death Is Not Master By May Miller

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    In May Miller’s Poem “Death is not Master” the persona explains that death is not the master that will increase the desperation but it is a way to become eternally calm. Many poems on the topic of death explain it as powerful thing that fears the existence of human beings, but Miller’s persona death is a way to achieve eternal serenity. She explains death as something that can end all the worldly tears, desires and tension and transform the human memory into a sculpture which is unaware of tensions. Miller’s persona believes that blocking death will be unfair as it will be a barrier to the everlasting happiness and calmness that lies inside the grave. Miller’s persona is an elaboration of Christian beliefs that death ends all worldly problems

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Death Be Not Proud And The Book Thief

    454 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the poem Death Be Not Proud and The Book Thief the deception of death is dissimilar. In Death Be Not Proud the poet is insulting death. One example of this “Some have called thee Mighty and dreadful for thou art not so.” In that quote he is saying that don't think you are powerful because you are not. In The Book Thief death is the narrator, and death does not interpret himself as evil. For example, Death has real feelings. He experiences both sadness and joy in the novel. Personification is what makes them dissimilar. In the poem the personification of death creates a feeling that death is less powerful than we think. He undermines death by stating that he subject to the rules of "fate, chance, kings, and desperate men." Death is also personified as a slave that has many masters, which limits the people he takes. In the book death is personified as cheerful affable amiable and agreeable. Going against John Donne's portrayal of death as a coward. In The Book Thief death is quite observant colors and is not just dark and evil. As shown in this quote “People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite

    Read More

  • Analysis: Forbidding Mourning, Holy Sonnet 10, And Meditation 17

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    While this may at first seem to counter the idea that death is an elevation, it is in fact complementary. For when Donne said that "any man's death diminishes me," the emphasis is not on death, but on man. Each person's death is the loss of a chapter from the book of life, and because each and every person shares that very volume, that loss affects everyone. Temporarily, their book is less magnificent; humanity as a whole has lost that person's contributions, thoughts, identity, and feelings. But the second implication rectifies this seemingly bleak answer to life's riddle: Everyone of the church will reunite in the end, and all of humanity's splendour shall come together again. Incidentally, this is also where Meditation 17 converges upon the first

    Read More

  • Holy Sonnet 10

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, when Mr. Donne first commences his poem, he uses the personification “Death, be not proud” (1). The author gives death the human characteristics of being “not proud.” The rest of the line continues as “though some have called you thee”. ” Death should not be prideful even if people think it is. John displays through this first line how he feels about death: he is too proud for his own good.

    Read More

  • Death Be Not Proud

    835 Words  | 2 Pages

    	How would you cope if you were going to die? In the memoir Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther, his son Named Johnny is faced with this situation. At an early age, Johnny was found with a brain tumor, and struggles to survive. Johnny later died from the brain tumor. Johnny was loved by many people; much of whom tried his/her best to help Johnny through this ordeal. Although Johnny was faced with death, Johnny faced death with courage throughout the book.

    Read More

  • Interpretation of A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    In arguing against mourning and emotional confusion, Donne uses a series of bold and unexpected comparisons for the love between himself and his lady. Donne makes his first surprising analogy in the first stanza when he compares the approaching separation of the lovers to death. "he speaker compares his parting from his lover to the parting of the soul from a virtuous man at death. According to the speaker, "virtuous men pass mildly away" (line 1) because the virtue in their lives has assured them of glory and happiness in the afterlife; therefore, they die in peace without fear and emotion. By this he suggests that the separation of the lovers is parrallel to the separation caused by death.

    Read More

  • Death in Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    A person should live life without fearing death and think of death as a pleasant rest. In the poem Bryant says, "When thoughts/Of the last bitter hour come like a blight/Over thy spirit,"(8-15). This quote implies when a person fears death he should listen to nature. He also states, "So live, that when the thy summons come to join/The innumerable caravans, …Thou go not, like a quarry-slave at night, /Scourged to his dungeon."(73-78). He explains here that a person should live life without fearing death. In the following lines the poet states, "approach thy grave, /Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch/About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."(79-81). By this quote the author is saying a person should think of death as a plea...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Here Bullet By Brian Turner

    1714 Words  | 4 Pages

    One must look at this poem and imagine what is like to live thru this experience of becoming so tired of expecting to die everyday on the battlefield, that one starts to welcome it in order to escape the anticipation. The effects of living day in and day out in such a manner creates a person who either has lost the fear of death or has become so frighten of how they once lived the compensate for it later by living a guarded life. The one who loses the fear for death ends up with this way of living in which they only feel alive when faced with death. The person in this poem is one who has lost their fear of death, and now thrives off coming close to it he expresses it when he states “Here is the adrenaline rush you crave, that inexorable flight, that insane puncture” (LL.6-7). What happens to this persona when he leaves the battlefield? He pushes the limit trying to come close to death to feel alive; until they push

    Read More

  • Division of the Body and Soul in John Donne's "The Funeral" and "Sonnet 3"

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...at significance but more importantly, they see death as a way of escaping the sin and pain that manifests itself on earth. The body is considered a shipping crate when it comes to the soul. It is something for the soul to reside in until it has fulfilled its purpose on earth. Then it leaves, to start a new life in another shipping crate. With a clean conscious each of the characters in these poems are able to die guilt-free and both believe they will ascend to heaven. They acknowledge the fact that their souls will carry on after their bodies have died and seem to rest assure in the fact that there is more to life than the experiences they had on earth. Similar to the way souls are regarded by today's standards, it is something that departs from person upon death and carries the memory of an individual forever. I think John Donne would have agreed with this idea.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices in Fear No More by William Shakespeare

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fundamental theme of this poem is regarding the significance of succumbing to death, for after having a full life everyone must fearlessly face the end. In addition, the poem emphasizes that one should not fight against the arrival of death in any of its forms. In fact, this argument is first introduced in the title and further displayed throughout Shakespeare's poem. In the first line of all three stanzas, the author begins with the phrase, "Fear no more," openly showing his belief that one should willingly submit to mortality. Furthermore, the poem's theme is displayed through the phrase "all must … come to dust." By acknowledging that death is inevitable for all of humanity, the author attempts to emphasize his belief that one should not "fear" fate. The theme of the poem is also reinforced through repetition. For example, to emphasize his stance, the author repeats the phrase, "Fear no more" in the first line of the first, second, and third stanza of the poem. Once again this occurs with the phrase, "must… come to dust" in the fifth and sixth line of the first, second, and third stanza. This is of importance

    Read More

  • Vulnerability in the Works of John Donne

    2695 Words  | 6 Pages

    John Donne uses poetry to explore his own identity, express his feelings, and most of all, he uses it to deal with the personal experiences occurring in his life. Donne's poetry is a confrontation or struggle to find a place in this world, or rather, a role to play in a society from which he often finds himself detached or withdrawn. This essay will discuss Donne's states of mind, his views on love, women, religion, his relationship with God; and finally how the use of poetic form plays a part in his exploration for an identity and salvation.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Gothic Romanticism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Thanatopsis'

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Predominantly the poem offers a sense of comfort and wisdom, against the fear and pain associated with death. Bryant shows readers not to agonize over dying, in fact, he writes, "When thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, and breathless darkness, and the narrow house, make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart -- go forth under the open sky, and list to Nature 's teachings." With this it eludes each person face their own death, without fright, to feel isolated and alone in death but to find peace in knowing that every person before had died and all those after will join in death (Krupat and Levine

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Death In Poetry

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people find it hard to imagine their death as there are so many questions to be answered-how will it happen, when, where and what comes next. The fact that our last days on Earth is unknown makes the topic of death a popular one for most poets who looks to seek out their own emotions. By them doing that it helps the reader make sense of their own emotions as well. In the two poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the poets are both capturing their emotion about death and the way that they accepted it. In Dickenson’s poem her feelings towards death are more passionate whereas in Dylan’s poem the feelings

    Read More

  • Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first quatrain of the poem begins undermining the idea of death by personifying it. Death is personified by Donne throughout the poem as he challenges death by stating that it is not the “mighty and dreadful” aspect of life that people are afraid of, but as an escape from life where people can find peace after death because “nor yet canst thou kill me” (Donne 1100). He argues that death does not really kill those whom it thinks it kills to further beat death into humility. In the opening line of the poem he uses an apostrophe, “Death, be not proud..” to begin with a dramatic tone to argue with death as people’s adversary (Donne 1100). Death is given negative human traits, such as pride, but also inferiority and pretense.

    Read More

  • John Donne's The Holy Sonnets

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    By making many references to the Bible, John Donne's Holy Sonnets reveal his want to be accepted and forgiven by God. A fear of death without God's forgiveness of sins is conveyed in these sonnets. Donne expresses extreme anxiety and fright that Satan has taken over his soul and God won't forgive him for it or his sins. A central theme of healing and forgiveness imply that John Donne, however much he wrote about God and being holy, wasn't such a holy man all of the time and tried to make up for it in his writing.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Death Be Not Proud

Open Document