1. Death, Be not proud By John Donne
Report by:
Keren Escober, Antoinette Hampton, Wendy Meza, Lizbeth Sanchez, Karla Nolasco, and Dinnet Cruz

2. Biography John Donne (1572-1631) Father: John Donne Born in London
Recusant Roman Catholic family
3rd of 6 children
Father: John Donne
Welsh decent and warden of the Ironmongers company in the city of London

3. Life High education and literary talents
Spent inherited money on literature, pastimes, and travel
1601 secretly married
a woman named Anne More
8th year of being a minister had major illness
Close to typhoid fever
Came close to death

4. Poet’s Career English Poet Religious Figure
Pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets
Best know for their strong sensual style and includes sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translation
Characterized by abrupt openings and carious paradoxes, ironies, and dislocation.
Religious Figure
1615 Anglican priest
1621 Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral
Member of parliament in 1601 & 1614

5. Structure Elizabethan/Shakespearean sonnet form
three quatrains and a concluding couplet
Italian/Petrarchan sonnet
Rhyme Scheme
Different than usual
Usual: ABBAABBA CDECDE or CDCDCD
Meter: Iambic Pentameter
Not followed completely
Tone shift in line 9

6. 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 b a c d a

7. Death; be not proud, though some have called thee
Personification
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
Apostrophe
Metaphor
Pun
Tone Shift
Conceit
Metonymy
Rhetorical Question
Extended Metaphor
Paradox

8. Analysis You should not be proud even if some say you are
Not mighty or dreadful
You think can kill people
You can’t anyone, in the end we live forever
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.

9. Rest and sleep are similar to death, dreams are like pictures of what after death will be like
Death should be pleasurable
Hardest working and bravest go first
Enjoying death and going into a new eternal life
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.

10. Manipulated by these factors
Associated with drugs, war, and sickness
The feeling that drugs and spells can give us the same death-like feeling
Does death give people as similar feeling drugs do? Yes! Death should’nt swell with pride
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?

11. One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die
After the short death we feel, we are now in a better place than death or life on earth, we live eternal life
Death will no longer exist in our lives, it won’t even be in our minds, thus it dies