1、Death Be Not Proud by John DonneAn Analysis of Donnes Divine Sonnet XIn “Death be not proud“ (Divine Sonnet X), Donne turns his rhetorical skills on his greatest poetic adversary - death itself.“Divine Sonnet X” by John Donne is one of his best-known religious poems. It famously begins “Death be not
2、 proud” and advances a stream of arguments to prove that mans greatest fear has no power over him.ApostropheThe opening line, “Death be not proud”, is an apostrophe or address to an abstract figure. Donne favours apostrophes and dramatic monologues, which give an immediacy and urgency to his rhetori
3、c in his career as a churchman, Donne was a famous preacher, so its no surprise that many of his poems sound like dramatic speeches. In rhetorically picking on death, Donne is taking on a big adversary, though not entirely without precedent. There is an echo in the opening of St. Pauls famous demand
4、 in 1Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”Ads by GoogleLearn Italian in ItalyJoin one of our small group road trips around IGod Can Give You New LifeLearn From This True Life Story How God Can Change Your Lifewww.LifesGreatestQArgumentsRather than developin
5、g a single line of logic, Donne throws several arguments at Death to try to humble it. “those whom thou thinkst thou dost ovethrow/ Die not” he declares, without fully explaining what he means at this point. “Rest and sleep” seem to be the “pictures” of death, and these are enjoyable, he argues, so
6、the real thing must be even more pleasant and in any case “soonest our best men with thee do go”; if the good die young, why should anyone want to avoid it?In a brilliant turn of argument, Donne tells Death that it is not “mighty and dreadful” because it is merely a functionary, a “slave to fate, ch
7、ance, kings and desperate men”. Anything which can be whistled for by so many despicable causes is hardly to be respected. Its habitat is amongst “poison, war and sickness”, a realm which no-one would want to rule. This is typical Donne: grandiose, verbally aggressive, and picking up any argument, h
8、owever specious or inconsistent, which can serve to support his cause. He even goes so far as to patronize the Grim Reaper, calling it “poor death” and demanding “why swellst thou then?”Read This Next John Donne Biography John Donnes Divine Sonnet VII The Canonization - Stanzas 4 and, along the way,
9、 he gained the respect of his family, friends, his doctors, and strangers. His life becomes a sort of experiment. And, in the end, the doctors could do nothing. “All the doctors!-helpless flies now, climbing across the granite face of death.“Johnny was sometimes able to function at a level that coul
10、d almost be called “normal,“ but he was continually faced with the realization that his mind was deteriorating. His memory began to fail him, as more of the healthy tissue was taken over. As Gunther writes, “All that goes into the brain-the goodness, the wit, the sum total of enchantment in a person
11、ality, the very will, indeed the ego itself-being killed inexorably, remorselessly, by an evil growth!“ And, no matter what new treatments they tried, they couldnt find a cure.A Fight to the DeathThe struggle against death is a fight against the void, against the loss of life-the spark. It is, as Gu
12、nther says:“A primitive to-the-death struggle of reason against violence, reason against disruption, reason against brute unthinking force-this was what went on in Johnnys head. What he was fighting against was the ruthless assault of chaos. What he was fighting for, as it were, the life of the huma
13、n mind.“Ultimately, Death came, like a thief in the night. The warmth of his body crept away. “Then little by little the life-color left his face, his lips became blue, and his hands were cold.“He was 17 years old. He would have attended Harvard. But, none of that mattered, as everyone who knew him
14、remembered his life. Frances writes of her grief and remembrance: “My grief, I find, is not desolation or rebellion at universal law or deity. I find grief to be much simpler and sadder. All the things he loved tear at my heart because he is no longer here on earth to enjoy them. All the things he l
15、oved!“ Like John Gunther, Frances asks the big questions: “What does it mean? What can it mean, now?“ But, then she draws upon the universality to her discussion of death: “Parents all over the earth who lost sons in the war have felt this kind of question, and sought and answer. To me, it means loving life more, being more aware of life, of ones fellow human beings, of the earth.“
