John Donne is one interesting poet. I always like how he fuses religion with deep issues such a death and sex. In his famous "Death be not proud," he mocks the efforts of death to be so domineering in life. People generally, and naturally, feel like, since death is the inevitable thing we must face in the end, we should do it homage. Donne disagrees heavily. He believes death to be futile in stopping people's eternal destinies. This eternal perspective is highlighted in lines 3 and 4: "For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow/ Die not , poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me." I have to admit, he is quite bold to view death this way, with such a cocky attitude. Christianity is the religious basis for this ideal; Christians believe that because Christ rose from the dead, then they, too, will rise and conquer death itself. I love how Donne uses alliteration and repetition in this poem; the last line is one of the most memorable I know. The line is number 14: "And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die." Death is personified as a being who is just as mortal as humans. The letter d gets special emphasis to where the line has a special style to it. This one, along with "Batter my heart Three-Personed God," is definitely one of my favorite poems of all time.
Works Cited: Donne, John "Death be not proud." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 669
Death weighs on all of our minds, does it not? It does seems so inevitable. You say Donne is cocky, but should this not be the view any good Christian takes? Still, he does seem almost confrontational, which I think is a biting sense of humor he is displaying. Laughing in the face of death is often how we see our brave and insane. Maybe Donne was trying to inspire those virtues within himself.
Death weighs on all of our minds, does it not? It does seems so inevitable. You say Donne is cocky, but should this not be the view any good Christian takes? Still, he does seem almost confrontational, which I think is a biting sense of humor he is displaying. Laughing in the face of death is often how we see our brave and insane. Maybe Donne was trying to inspire those virtues within himself.
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