Lecture notes
Death Be Not Proud (John Donne)
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- CCEA
A2 Unit 1-John Donne notes
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Holy Sonnets X: Death Be Not Proud- This is part of a sonnet sequence on death and judgement
FORM AND STRUCTURE
- This is a sonnet
- The poem is pentameter which is used to recreate the rhythms of the natural speaking
voice. In terms of the typical sonnet metre (iambic pentameter) this is irregular. The
inventive use of form is a feature of metaphysical verse
- The poem has a Petrarchan rhyme scheme but the half rhyme of the concluding couplet is
more Shakespearean
- Donne inventively works within the constraints of typical sonnet forms
- The poet has an octave / sestet division with a Volta (pivotal structural point)
- The octave explores the idea that death is not as powerful as it thinks as it has to give way to
eternal life.
- The sestet argues that death is a victim and subject to the capriciousness and vicissitudes of
life- victim to circumstance and fortune
- The poem is an apostrophe to death- it portrays death as an almighty powerful being- the
apostrophe gives the poem a dramatic quality
- The dominant technique used in the poem is personification
LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY
- The tone in the poem is bold and audacious, confident and assertive
- There is an implicit fear of death in the poem- this can be explained through the low life
expectancy and high mortality rate in 17 th Century. It was also an age of primitive medicine.
Donne himself had a period of ill health while 2 of Donne’s children died at an early age.
Donne had an acute awareness of death. There is an anecdote that Donne posed for a
portrait in his shroud to remind his congregation about the
Octave
- Line 1: Through the use of personification and emphatic use of negative, “Death, be not
proud” the poet creates an audacious tone. Death is an aspect of the human condition
which would have greatly resonated with the 17 th Century audience. Through the qualifying
phrase, “though some have called thee” the poet begins to undercut the pomposity of his
opening statement.
- Line 2: The use of enjambment emphasises the adjectives, “Might y and dreadful” which are
consistent with the traditional view of death. The emphatic use of four stressed syllables,
“thou art not so” recreates the rhythms of the natural speaking voice. The flexible and
inventive rhythm interrupts the iambic pentameter and the inventive use of metre creates
the rhythms of the natural speaking voice.
- Line 3: The poet vaguely alludes to delusional individuals, “For those whom thou think’st
thou dost overthrow”. Through the use of the vague language, there is a suggestion that the
speaker is engaged in an exercise of self-convincing. The emphatic use of alliteration, “thou
think’st thou” creates a disrespectful, confrontational tone as the poet challenges death.
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