John Donne’s Death, be not proud is a particularly interesting poem that expresses the act of dying as something natural and pleasant abandoning the reputation it has held for being frightening or powerful. The speaker notes that those whom Death thinks it kills do not truly die and that it will definitely not kill him. Donne goes on the explain that both rest and sleep are like little copies of Death, and because they are pleasurable, therefore Death must be even more so. The best people enjoy the deliverance of their souls and desertion of their bones by accepting death with readiness. Drugs and potions can make people sleep as well, or better than Death, so it should not be so proud. It is merely a short sleep, after which the dead awake into eternal life, where Death doesn’t even exist. Death itself will die.
The author wants those who read Death, be not proud to question Death and how people look at it. Donne says that if the afterlife is eternal, then upon the moment a person dies, it is really Death that dies, for that person wi
This piece was one I thoroughly enjoyed reading because it took the ideas that so many have about Death and created a feeling of comfort, and joy out of it. I had never before considered the points made by Donne until reading this poem. To think that eternal life extends after the process of dying is one that is uplifting in a sense. The way the author describes Death, makes it seem like it’s not a big deal and to not let its negative connotation outweigh the positive. This varies greatly from the sonnet by William Shakespeare titled, That time of year thou may’st in me behold in that the finality of death is focused upon. It has more of a saddening and disheartening view of what death stands for and the process through which people die. It focuses on loss, rather than Donne’s view of a simple step needed to be taken in order to continue on in infinity. I liked both of the sonnets, but they definitely have significantly different moods and thoughts behind the idea of death. While they are both extremely well written and poetic sonnets that give off a strong purpose about the same concept, they are ve
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