1.3. Death, Be Not Proud

This presentation was by Nojod. Death, Be Not Proud in The Renaissance.

1. Death Be Not Proud This poem was written by John Donne who is considered a metaphysical poet in the Elizabethan period. Metaphysical poets analyzed love, religion and life from a psychological point of view.

2. This Holly Sonnet presents an argument against the power of death . The poet addresses Death as a person . He gives physical characteristics to inanimate idea or concept .

3. Meanings of words: Mighty: powerful Thee: you Delivery: to reach freedom Slave: servant Fate: destiny Desperate: one who feds up Dost: does Sickness: ill Poppy: red flower which gives us opium Charms: different ways of putting person to sleep Stroke: attack Swell: to become big Eternally: forever Shalt : shall

4. The R hyme Scheme: Abba / abba / abba / aa In this sonnet, John Donne mix the Shakespearian and the Petrarchan sonnet. (Shakespearian, according to the division – Petrarchan , according to the rhyme scheme.

5. The Paraphrase: The first quatrain: In the first line, the speaker is personifying death telling him that he shouldn’t be proud although some people call him mighty and dreadful, but it is not so and this is the reason for not being proud. The speaker then says that death cannot do anything because he things that he killed

6. m any people but actually they are not dead. Then he adresses death, saying that death is a poor thing even though he cannot destroy or kill him. The second quatrain: The speaker is giving us a proof that death is just like sleep and rest . He is comparing death to sleep and rest. He is asking what we get from sleep and rest but pleasure and if sleep and rest are a copy from the original, so from

7. Death we are going to get more pleasure. The speaker is telling us that when death come to us it well free our souls and it well rest our bones and our souls will fly from this prison which is the body, so he is telling us that we shouldn’t be afraid from it because it happen everyday.

8. The third quatrain: The speaker is giving us another proof that death is not mighty. He is considering death as a slave to faith because the slaves can’t control themselves but they obey orders especially when people want to commit suicide, he goes with them and also he is a slave to chance and kings.

9. Then the speaker is describing to us the place when death is living in and that it is surrounded by poison, wars and sickness. So he is not powerful or mighty because if it was so, it can change its surroundings. The speaker is saying that anyone can have a long sleep by using drugs or any kind of medicine.

10. So death is not strong enough and this is better than striking us because we will be waiting to die. After all, the speaker is asking him why he is proud of himself.

11. The couplet: The speaker is telling death that he is not afraid of him because after this sleep, he will wake up and live eternally and death, in the other life, will have no place for him and he shall be finished .

12. Figure of Speech: The poem is full of Alliteration: Line 1: though – thee Line 3: those – thou Line 4: die – death / canst – kill Line 6: much – more - must / then – thee / from – flow Line 10: dost – dwell / with – war Line 12: than – thy / thou – then Line 13: one – we – wake Line 14: death – die / shall - shalt

13. Metaphor: He compares death to a slave Metaphor with personification: Death, be not proud. He compares death to a person who is proud Donne ends the poem with paradox and irony: Death, thou shalt die.

14. Personification: Death is given negative human traits: pride mainly Death is likened to sleep, a commonplace image Metonymy: Poppy and charms refer to the use of opium and magic to produce sleep, or to produce a gentle death. Poppy is metonymy , it is what is derived from the poppy that is the opiate, not literally the flower itself

15. Donne’s theme tells the reader that death has no right to be proud. This poem is a metaphysical poem: It deals with human experience as much of the poetry that was written during those time. However, the poets of the era being intelligent and educated meant that the poetry they wrote would tackle the profound areas of experience.

16. Done by: Nejod Faisal Zafir