Death, be not proud By John Donne By: Casildo Casillas Aqeel Mohamed Jesse Salazar Joel Tenorio Vuong Nguyen

Biography John Donne is an English poet born in 1572 in London. Despite his great education and his poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He was born into a Roman Catholic family which at the time was illegal to practice in England since there was an anti-Catholic sentiment widespread in England. After his father’s death in 1576, his mother remarried a wealthy man. He entered Oxford University at age 11 and then to the University of Cambridge but sadly never got a degree because he didn’t take the Oath of Supremacy. At the age of 20, Donne began studying law at Lincoln’s Inn. During the 1590’s Donne wrote most of his poems about love. His work is noted for a strong and sensual style.

Cont. of the Biography His brother, Henry, was convicted after he gave sanctuary to a proscribed Catholic priest and later died in prison. This led Donne to question his Catholic faith and write great works on death. In 1601 he became a member of Parliament and married a 16 year- old girl named Anne More. Together they had 12 children. In 1617 Donne’s wife died after giving birth to their 12th child. In 1610 he published Pseudo-Martyr which is a writing renouncing his Catholic faith. After this, he stopped writing about love and he started to get sick. Donne focused his poems on death. The poem “Death Be Not Proud” was written between 1601 and 1610—the exact year is uncertain—and it was published after Donne died. It is said he died of stomach cancer but they never had information to prove this.

Metaphysical This poem is one of the more famous metaphysical poems by Donne. The prefix 'meta' means 'after,' which means the literal definition of 'metaphysical' means 'after the physical’. Metaphysics deals with questions that can't be explained by science. In this case it deals with the afterlife. Samuel Johnson, another famous poet, has credit for the the term metaphysical but the founder of the metaphysical poets is John Donne. Other metaphysical poets besides Samuel Johnson and John Donne include George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, and John Cleveland. Samuel Johnson George Herbert Richard Crashaw Andrew Marvell John Cleveland

Holy Sonnet 10 Holy sonnets, also known as Divine Meditation or Divine sonnets which is a series of nineteen poems and about the faith of his life. They were first published in 1633, two years after his death. “Death be not Proud” is the 10th sonnet of nineteen that are part of a collection entitled The Holy Sonnet. Donne faced many difficulties including the deaths of his parents, his wife and financial difficulties which turned him almost death-obsessed writer of the Holy Sonnets. In Holy Sonnets, Donne addresses religious themes of mortality, divine judgment, divine love, sin, grace, and redemption. Donne is presenting an argument against the power of death and believes that it is just controlled and manipulated and has no free will of its own. This shows how the power we believe that death holds is just an illusion. Death is compared to a human being that has no power over others other than itself.

Death, be not proud BY JOHN DONNE Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Tone and Diction Negative Positive Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow; And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. Negative This poem is a Petrarchan Sonnet that is written in Iambic Pentameter but does not strictly follow the rule.The tone is aggressive and defiant making death feel and appear weak. Positive Although the topic of the poem is negative, the poem is overwhelmingly positive because Donne is putting down death and says that Death doesn't have any real power.

Alliteration and Rhyme Scheme Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery. Thou’art slave to Fate, Chance, Kings, and Desperate men, And dost with Poison, War, and Sickness dwell; And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. 1 A Alliteration and Rhyme Scheme 2 B 3 B 4 A 5 A 6 B 7 B 8 A 9 C 10 D 11 D He changes the usual rhyme scheme to show how much power he has making him even more powerful than death. It does not follow the rhyme scheme. 12 C 13 A 14 E

Octet Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Some people have called death powerful but John Donne claims it is not. People have always feared death, but Donne portrays death as positive. Death is believed to defeat those who die. John Donne believes that death cannot kill him or anyone else. Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. He compares rest and sleep to death as they give pleasure to us. Death will give us even more pleasure once we finally meet him. Donne makes something to be thought as a negative to appear positive. Delivery- refers to rebirth, which adds to the whole "new life" idea. Dreadful- refers to causing or involving great suffering, fear, or unhappiness; extremely bad or serious

Sestet Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, At this point Donne compares death to a slave and says it is controlled by other things like "fate, chance, kings, and desperate men.” Even thogh Death deals with poison, war and sickness, Death can’t provide a better rest than “poppie or charms”. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with Poison, War, and Sickness dwell; And poppie, or charms can make us sleepe as well, And better then thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. Donne asks Death not to be proud of Death can no longer affect someone who is dead.People will live eternally in the afterlife. So in turn death has died. Throughout the whole poem death is capitalized and is treated as a human being,therefore death is no more powerful than human Poppy- is a flower used to make opium, an old-fashioned drug that makes people really happy.

Putting Down Death Theme When you fear something, there are two ways to deal with it. Either you try run away from it or try and fight it. In this sonnet, John Donne makes people feel like we do not need to fear Death, since it is a transitional phase between the pain and suffering of this world and the glory and peace in the next. We will eventually triumphant over Death and will not have to fear since we will live on eternally.The speaker attempts to intimidate Death, because the only thing that can defeat Death is Death itself. Theme The theme is how powerless death really is, since death is nothing but a pathway to an eternal life and how death has no control over when people die. Death dies when we wake from our short sleep and enter eternity.

Figure of Speech Enjambments are in line 1 and 3 Synecdoche: “Rest of their bones.” -Best men's bones actually stand for the whole physical body. Apostrophe: He treats Death as a person, in the fourth line he addresses "poor Death” and in the second line he states “Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so” Donne uses apostrophe in this line, he treats death like a human even though death can’t respond . Personification: -Line 1: proud -Line 3: overthrow -Line 4: Poor Death

Figure of Speech Metaphor: -Line 5: a classic metaphor in Christian writings, comparison of death to rest and sleep. -Line 9: “Thou art slave to fate, chance, king, and desperate men”In this line Donne is using a metaphor because he is comparing death to a slave. Rhetorical question is a question that is asked in order to make a point. “Why swell’st thou then?” Paradox and Irony Donne ends the poem with a paradox and an irony: “Death, thou shalt die.” This is ironic because death itself cannot die.