Holy
Sonnet 10, "Death be not proud"
By John Donne
The poet depict death as a force that
is supposed to be (mighty ,dreadful) because it kills everybody but he denies
it's invincibility ,pity poor death and declaring that it will not kill him
,assuming the voice of a preacher. John Donne was an Anglican minister , we see
that the poet attempts to convince his audience by the power of his rhetorical
attack ,and his faith in the afterlife not to be afraid of death saying that
people actually do not die forever
In a series
of paradoxes the poet attacks the conventional characterization of death as
mans invincible conqueror rather than being a fearful experience, death brings
greater release and pleasure than rest and sleep which people use to restore
their energy ,death not only provides
rest of bones but also souls delivery ,a release in to a peaceful eternity.. Moreover
death is not a tyrant that it imagines itself to be rather it is a slave to
arbitrary dictates of fate and chance ,to the whims of capricious monarchs and
murderers.
Death is associated only with the
most destructive elements in life ,poison, war, and sickness moreover, drugs can
put a person to sleep as easily as than death does ,thus as a result it's
servility, weakness, and association with the worst human events ,death should
not swell with pride. The final two lines, an un-rhyming couplet, some up the poet’s defeat of
vainglorious death: people may die, but they do not stay dead. They awaken from
death as if from a short sleep in to an eternity in which death shall be no
more. Death shall die then, but humans will live eternally.
The principle
poetic technique used by Donne to diminish death are to depict it as a person
and then challenge death as if the poet is engaged in a single combat with it.
Death can
come in so many ways at any time to anybody that is seems to have myriad forms
so Donne produce death by presenting it as a weak person ,subservient to the
worst elements of life and unable to counter the poet challenge.
One of the
central irony of the poem is demonstrated by Donne's use of variants of death
and words related to it to dominate a poem directed against death is the first
word of the sonnet and the last line which declares the end of death contain
"Death" twice and "Die" as the last word of the
couplet.
Death be not
proud is a sonnet concern the ways in which one can defeat the fear of death
and anticipates the happiness of an eternal afterlife ,the poet create various
derogatory ,images of death in an effort to reduce it power as human kind most
ubiquitous enemy .
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