Critical Analysis Of 'Death, Be Not Proud'

In the poem “Death, be not proud”, John Donne presents a speaker that illustrates his personal beliefs on the theme of death by personifying death as a living entity and speaking with “death” directly. In doing so, the speaker adequately conveys his personal feelings towards death and its lack of power over human life. This can be seen within the very first line of the poem, where the speaker begins with the statement “Death, be not proud”(). Here the speaker is addressing “Death” and his pride over his supposed power to take human life and how he believes this pride lacks merit. Line three also demonstrates this same opinion concerning death when he exclaims “for those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow die not” (). With this line the

In the final two lines of the poem, the speaker speaks ironically toward death, by exclaiming that “death, thou shalt die”, while men in fact will live “eternally.” By utilizing this personification of death, the reader can clearly understand the speaker’s emotions and opinions concerning death and can more readily grasp the irony of his

The poem also demonstrates the characteristics of an Italian sonnet with the first eight lines presenting the speaker’s initial conflict (also known as an octave) and the final six lines bringing resolution to this conflict (). This particular form allows the speaker to first introduce his issue with death’s pride, and then directly state why this pride is folly, therefore bringing resolution to the speaker’s argument. The use of this form also demonstrates the “extended use of metaphor [and similie]”() . Throughout the poem, the speaker likens the death of man to sleep in order to further establish his belief that death does not kill or destroy man. In line five, the speaker relates death with sleep with the words “from rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, much pleasure” (). This showcases his personal beliefs towards literal death as a sweet sleep. This is also seen in line eleven, where the speaker says “poppy or charms can make us sleep as well” (). Again, the speaker uses simile to demonstrate his opinion that dying is more near sleeping than the actual destruction death claims as its power. In this line, he also undermines death’s power by relating it to sleep. This is because he says mere “sleep” can be come by simply through other means, and therefore deaths “powers” are not special or necessary. The speaker’s use of the Italian