John Donne's Holy Sonnet X, which has
come to be called "Death Be Not Proud" because of its theme and repetition of the
phrase, exhibits several elements of poetry:
First of all, since poetry has
been defined as "literature in a metrical form," it is apparent that the meter and rhyme
of Donne's famous verse serve well to contribute to its meaning, an attack upon the
ineffectual tyrant of death. The meter, the rhythm and rhyme are balanced and strong,
underscoring Donne's assertive castigation of
death.
METAPHYSICAL
CONCEIT
The metaphysical conceit creates elaborately
dissimilar concepts and ideas and images which startle the reader into understanding
that although death comes ultimately, its effect is not as terrible as one may imagine,
for death is not in control of circumstances; it is but a "slave to fate, chance, kings,
and desperate men." And, of course, eternal life conquers
death.
PERSONIFICATION
Death
has been personificed as the grim reaper; at other times as an angel with black wings
and a net, and still other times as a fierce horseman who carries a skull. Donne
suggests these images of death with such words as "thou dost overthrow," "and soonest
our best men with thee do go," and "dost with poison, war, and sickness
dwell."
PARADOX
After
suggesting the known images of death and their dangerous acts, Donne counters the fear
that the personification of death connotes by stating
paradoxes:
For those whom thou think'st thou dost
overthroe,
Die not, poor death, not yet canst thou kill
me
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures
[images] be
Strengthening his
argument that death has no real power over the human soul which "wakes eternally," Donne
ends with his final paradox:
And death shall be no more. Death thou shall
die.
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