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Death Be Not Proud

1.      (How does poem conform, How does it differ?)        

Death Be Not Proud seems to be a common sonnet.  It has 3 quatrains and a couplet.  Where most poems would follow an abab scheme for rhyming, this one does not.  The following is the rhyme scheme of the poem: abba/abba/cddc/aa.

2. (Use of Apostrophe and Personification.  How enhance experience?)

Donne is speaking to death as a person, he is taking a noun that is not a living person or thing and he is giving it life-like qualities.  This is used to give the reader a feeling of strength, like they have ‘one up’ over the inevitable death.  Personifying death, giving ‘him’ life makes one feel as if it is merely human, like we are.  This feeling makes people believe that with the right strength, they can overcome death.  Rather than facing the inevitable, Donne’s poem is about defeating that which can not be conquered.

3. (Paraphrase quatrains and couplet)

Death is not proud although he has been called it/You are not strong and frightening/The people you believe you destroy/do not die, no will I./ From sleeping and resting, which you are/We get enjoyment so from you we must get more/Soon the best will go/to rest and be at peace./ You are only due to fate, chance, kings and desperate solutions (suicide)/And you come with poison, war and illness/ Other things can make us sleep well/they make us sleep better than you do so why are you proud/ Death is a short sleep and we will wake eternally/ We will be immortal and you will be the one who dies. (irony- The mythological death is immortal while we, as humans, are mortal.)