Death, Be not Proud by Donne

                                                               

         

      This is the holly sonnet by Donne, he also known for holly sonnets as for love poems. His sonnets deal with the serious themes and issues related to human existence. This sonnet deals with the theme of the death. Generally every human beings are afraid of death but poet here presents the picture of death in different way. The poet’s attempt is to reduce fear of death and to convince the readers that death is a normal incident of life.

       The sonnet opens with poet’s address to death that there is no need for death to be proud.  Some people consider it as powerful and dangerous but poet considers it neither mighty nor dreadful. Poet challenges death by saying that it can’t kill him. Truly speaking, those people don’t die whom death thinks that it has killed. Poet believes that the picture of death is nothing but rest and sleep from where pleasure derived.

      

      To poet death is nothing except rest of the body and soul going   to a new born. He consider death slave of fate, chance, kings and desperate men, I means person dies only after fate, chance or king decide as punishment. Sometimes it comes when person calls as suicide.  Poet mentions three places where death lives in poison, war and sickness. So, poet said death no need to be proud, its just a small sleep after which person get new form, life to live for long time.

    

     “One short sleep passed, we wake eternally”

     Poet concludes with the statement that ‘Death will be no more, Death itself will die.’