by Oscar Wellington

Created on: August 24, 2009

John Donne's "Death, Be not Proud", also known as Holy Sonnet X, is a fierce sonnet that personifies death as a real entity that is not to be feared. Donne elaborates throughout this piece how death is far from fearful, but instead, an abstract figure to be pitied, for it is death that will truly die in the end.

In first four lines, Donne verbally assaults death in explaining that death has little power over anyone: "Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so, / For, those, whom thou think'st, though dost overthrow, / Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me" (1-4). Despite death's ability to overthrow all men, Donne attempts to overthrow death itself in claiming that death has no right to feel any accomplishment in his work. Donne invokes the literary term known as apostrophe, where a speaker will address a non-human entity, as if it were part of the conversation.

Donne explains that while some do fear death, (those who see him as "mighty and dreadful") Donne staunchly claims that he should not be feared by anyone, for death cannot truly kill anything. Thus death is actually regarded as "poore" here, as if Donne takes pity upon him. After all, he is literally called death and yet he cannot cause death in any sense, a tragic irony.

In the next four lines, Donne explains exactly why death has no effect on the world: "From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, / Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, / And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, / Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie" (5-8). Donne states how the state of death (not the abstract figure) looks simply like a peaceful sleep, and that "Much pleasure" is to be gained when a person goes with death. Thus, Donne explains that as soon as: "our best men with thee doe goe", their souls are delivered (peacefully) by death itself. In that sense, death is a wonderful thing, and death the entity can claim no horror or fear over people, because he leads each soul to a graceful end.

The last six lines of this piece argues how Death is in a sorrier state than anyone who actually dies: "Thou are slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, / And dost with poison, warre, and sicknesse dwell, / And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then; / One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, / And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die" (9-14). Death is "slave" to anything that causes death because he has no choice but

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>