Death, Be not proudBy John Donne

Report by:Keren Escobar, Antoinette Hampton, Wendy

Meza, Lizbeth Sanchez, Karla Nolasco, and Dinnet Cruz

Biography

• John Donne (1572-1631)– Born in London– Recusant Roman Catholic family– 3rd of 6 children

• Father: John Donne – Welsh decent and warden of the Ironmongers

company in the city of London

Life• High education and literary talents

• Spent inherited money on literature, pastimes, and travel

• 1601 secretly married a woman named Anne More

• 8th year of being a minister had major illness– Close to typhoid fever– Came close to death

Poet’s Career

• English Poet– Pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets– Best know for their strong sensual style and includes

sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translation

– Characterized by abrupt openings and carious paradoxes, ironies, and dislocation.

• Religious Figure– 1615 Anglican priest– 1621 Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral– Member of parliament in 1601 & 1614

Structure

• Elizabethan/Shakespearean sonnet form– three quatrains and a concluding couplet

• Italian/Petrarchan sonnet– Rhyme Scheme

• Different than usual• Usual: ABBAABBA CDECDE or CDCDCD

– Meter: Iambic Pentameter• Not followed completely

– Tone shift in line 9

Death; be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so;For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrowDie not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure- then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die

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Death; be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so;For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrowDie not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure- then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die

Personification

Apostrophe

Metaphor

Tone Shift

Conceit

Metonymy

Rhetorical QuestionExtended Metaphor

Pun

Paradox

Analysis

Death; be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so;

For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

You should not be proud even if some say you are

Not mighty or dreadful

You think can kill people

You can’t anyone, in the end we live forever

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure- then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Rest and sleep are similar to death, dreams are like pictures of what after death will be like

Death should be pleasurable

Hardest working and bravest go first

Enjoying death and going into a new eternal life

Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

Manipulated by these factors

Associated with drugs, war, and sickness

The feeling that drugs and spells can give us the same death-like feeling

Does death give people as similar feeling drugs do? Yes! Death should’nt swell with pride

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die

After the short death we feel, we are now in a better place than death or life on earth, we live eternal life

Death will no longer exist after death thus it dies