Q - Detailed Critical Analysis of

“Death, Be Not Proud”

Title

The poem first appeared as “Holy Sonet X” in a collection of nineteen sonnets by John Donne. However, its title came to be known as “Death, Be Not Proud” ,after the first four words of the poem. It was written between 1601 and 10.

Type of Work

"Death, Be Not Proud" is a sonnet (fourteen-line poem) similar in format to that established in Italy byPetrarch (1304-74), a Roman Catholic priest who popularized the sonnet form before it was adopted and modified in England. Petrarch's sonnets each consist of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it. 

Theme

“Death Be Not Proud” is among the most famous and most beloved poems in English literature. Its popularity lies in its message of hope couched in eloquent, quotable language. Donne’s theme tells the reader that death has no right to be proud, since human beings do not die but live eternally after “one short sleep.” Although some people depict death as mighty and powerful, it is really a lowly slave that depends on luck, accidents, decrees, murder, disease, and war to put men to sleep. But a simple poppy (whose seeds provide a juice to make a narcotic) and various charms (incantations, amulets, spells, etc.) can also induce sleep—and do it better than death can. After a human being’s soul leaves the body and enters eternity, it lives on; only death dies.

Figures of Speech

To convey his message, Donne relies primarily on personification, a type of metaphor, that extends through the entire poem. (Such an extended metaphor is often called a conceit.) Thus, death becomes a person whom Donne addresses, using the second-person singular (implied or stated as thou, thee, and thy). Donne also uses alliteration, as the following lines illustrate:

Alliteration

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then
One short sleep past, we wake eternally (Note: One begins with a w sound; thus, it alliterates with weand wake.)
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die

Metaphor

Thou [Death] art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men
Comparison of death to a slave

Metaphor With Personification

Death, be not proud
Comparison of death to a person

Paradox and Irony

Donne ends the poem with paradox and irony: Death, thou shalt die.

Meter

The meter varies, although most of the poem is in iambic pentameter, as in lines 5-7:

.......1....................2....................3................4...............5
From REST..|..and SLEEP,..|..which BUT..|..thy PIC..|..tures BE

.......1....................2....................3..................4......................5
Much PLEA..|..sure; THEN..|..from THEE..|..much MORE..|..must FLOW,

........1.................2...............3..................4...............5
And SOON..|..est OUR..|..best MEN..|..with THEE..|..do GO

Rhyme Scheme

The rhyme scheme of "Death, Be Not Proud" is as follows: ABBA, ABBA, CDDC, EE. 

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"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"

Type of Work

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is a lyric poem. Some scholars further classify it as a metaphysical poem; Donne himself did not use that term. Among the characteristics of a metaphysicalpoem are the following:

• Startling comparisons or contrasts of a metaphysical (spiritual, transcendant, abstract) quality to a concrete (physical, tangible, sensible) object. In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," Donne compares the love he shares with his wife to a compass. (See Stanza 7 of the poem).  
• Mockery of idealized, sentimental romantic poetry, as in Stanza 2 of the poem.
• Gross exaggeration (hyperbole). 
• Presentation of a logical argument. Donne argues that he and his wife will remain together spiritually even though they are apart physically. 
• Expression of personal, private feelings, such as those Donne expresses in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." 

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" was first published in 1633, two years after Donne died, in a poetry collection entitled Songs and Sonnets.

Summary  and Title

.......In 1611, John Donne wrote "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" to his wife, Anne More Donne, to comfort her while he sojourned in France on government business and she remained home in Mitcham, England, about seven miles from London. The title says, in essence, "When we part, we must not mourn."Valediction comes from the Latin verb valedicere, meaning to bid farewell. Their love, after all, is transcendant, heavenly. Other husbands and wives who know only physical, earthly love, weep and sob when they separate for a time, for they dread the loss of physical closeness. But because Donne and his wife have a spiritual as well as physical dimension to their love, they will never really be apart, he says. Their souls will remain united–even though their bodies are separated–until he returns to England. 

Theme

 Real, complete love unites not only the bodies of a husband and wife but also their souls. Such spiritual love is transcendent, metaphysical, keeping the lovers together intellectually and spiritually even though the circumstances of everyday life may separate their bodies. 

Figures of Speech

Metaphor

Donne relies primarily on extended metaphors to convey his message. First, he compares his separation from his wife to the separation of a man's soul from his body when he dies (first stanza). The body represents physical love; the soul represents spiritual or intellectual love. While Donne and his wife are apart, they cannot express physical love; thus, they are like the body of the dead man. However, Donne says, they remain united spiritually and intellectually because their souls are one. So, Donne continues, he and his wife should let their physical bond "melt" when they part (line 5). 
He follows that metaphor with others, saying they should not cry sentimental "tear-floods" or indulge in "sigh-tempests" (line 6) when they say farewell. Such base sentimentality would cheapen their relationship. He also compares himself and his wife to celestial spheres, such as the sun and others stars, for their love is so profound that it exists in a higher plane than the love of  husbands and wives whose relationship centers solely on physical pleasures which, to be enjoyed, require that the man and woman always remain together, physically. 
Finally, Donne compares his relationship with his wife to that of the two legs of a drawing compass. Although the legs are separate components of the compass, they are both part of the same object. The legs operate in unison. If the outer leg traces a circle, the inner leg–though its point is fixed at the center–must pivot in the direction of the outer leg. Thus, Donne says, though he and his wife are separated, like the legs of the compass, they remain united because they are part of the same soul.

Paradox

In the sixth stanza, Donne begins a paradox, noting that his and his wife's souls are one though they be two; therefore, their souls will always be together even though they are apart. 

Simile

Stanza 6 also presents a simile, comparing the expansion of their souls to the expansion of beaten gold. 

Alliteration

Donne also uses alliteration extensively. Following are examples:

Whilst some of their sad friends do say (line 3)
Dull sublunary lovers' love (line 13)
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit (line 14)
That our selves know not what it is, (line 18)
Our two souls therefore, which are one (line 21)
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end where I begun (lines 35-36)

.Rhyme Scheme and Meter

End rhyme occurs in the first and third lines of each stanza and in the second and fourth lines. The meter is iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four feet) per line. Each foot, or pair of syllables, consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The first two lines of the second stanza demonstrate this metric pattern:

....1......  .      ..2...........  ....3.................4
So LET..|..us MELT..|..and MAKE..|..no NOISE
  ....1............     ..2...........    ....3........  .........4
No TEAR-..|..floods NOR..|..sigh-TEMP..|..ests MOVE

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