Analysis of "death, Be Not Proud" by John Donne

In the fourteen lines of “Death be not proud”, Donne has done a viable assault against the power of death and, in the meantime, has pronounced his confidence in an interminable existence in wake of death's delights that should rise above the repulsions of earthly life.

The most notable literary device Donne uses in this poem is personification and apostrophe. Starting from line 1, Donne makes remarkable uses of apostrophe, addressing an abstract idea in a very direct manner. In this case, in reference to death as “Death”. This exhibits both irony and paradox, communicating the idea of death as if it were a living thing. In doing so, the poet makes his first attempt to create a derogatory image of death, trivializing it to reduce its power. He says that Death, you shouldn’t be feel arrogant or husbristic even though some people regard your power to be as such i.e “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee. // Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;”. In line 4, when Donne writes “poor Death”, by employing the anecdote at hand, he exhibits the utmost of belittling tones as if to sympathize with it for being so impotent.He conveys personification throughout the poem by saying that Death ought not be pleased in light of the fact that, as opposed to what the vast majority may opine, death does not have any potency but to convey interminable life to those it touches. In the third quatrain, once again Donne makes a compelling use of the anecdote for disparaging Death by pronouncing that Death you yourself are contingent on “fate, chance, kings and desperate men” and are aided by “poison, war and sickness” so what is there to be proud of. When he addresses death as “thou” (as in line 2,3, 4, 9, 12 and 14), it is as if he is addressing a person, hence heightening the anecdote at hand. In utilizing this strategy, Donne is able to apply human characteristics to an abstract concept, accordingly influencing demise to appear substantial, as well as to some degree powerless and defeatable. At the end of the poem when he says, “Death, thou shalt die,” Donne implies death too can be subjected to death as people are, even though the audience very well knows that Death cannot literally die. Thus by using this device throughout the sonnet, Donne portrays Death to be subservient to the worst elements of life, setting the tone of trivialization for the whole poem.

Another technique employed to diminish the power of death is through the alternation of regular and conventional prosodic stress. When Donne needs to demonstrate that Death isn't to be dreaded, he arranges it within the normal versifying iambic beat (“And soonest our best men with thee do go”), but when he needs to disparage the notion of demise, he utilizes a pounding, sustained stress (“Death, be not proud,” “Death, thou shalt die”). Uniformly, Donne's decision of fundamentally monosyllabic words amplifies the effect of his pivotal pronouncement of subversion of Death. As in line 2, there is noteworthy metrical accentuation, as in the accompanying withdrawal from the conventional rhyming musicality and iambus. Under standard circumstances in iambic meter, the the even syllables are accented and the odd syllables are unaccented. Alternatively, Donne highlights the first four syllables, heightening the emphasize onto the two key syllables, “Might” and “dread.” The poet again operates rhythm in which the last three words (“art not so”) are all intensely complemented monosyllables – a sort of cadence that accentuates the adamant claim made in these assertive words. Thus Donne portrays Death in a disparaging manner by addressing Death as if to say that some people might have called you mighty or dreadful but you aren’t actually what they make of you.

The first quatrain ends with the poet’s assertion of will in the face of death (“nor yet canst