A step by step analysis of the poem, "Death Be Not Proud" by John Donne

1. DEATH BE NOT
PROUD
John Donne

2. 1. Do you’ll think of death?
2. How often do you do so?
3. What are your views on death?
4. Are you afraid of death?
5. Have you prepared yourself to face death?

3. Time to take turns and recite the sonnet!!!!

4. What’s a sonnet?

5. A sonnet is a poem that has:
1. fourteen lines
2. Petrarchan- octave (8 lines) and sestet(6 lines)
3. or Shakespearean ( 3 quatrains and a couplet)
Specific rhyme scheme
English – abab – cdcd- efef- gg
Italian – abba – abba – varies (cdecde, cdcdcd,cddcdd)

6. About the poem…
Sonnet
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in which the same idea runs throughout the
poem. In this sonnet, John Donne has combined the Shakespearian and
Petrarchan style The division of the sonnet reflects the Shakespearian structure,
whereas the rhyme scheme shows the structure of Petrarchan sonnet.
Rhyme Scheme
ABBA ABBA CDDC EE
Octave Sestet

7. Analysis
1.Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful
 The speaker directly addresses and personifies
Death, telling it not to be arrogant just because
some people find death scary and intimidating.

8. Analysis
for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
 In fact, death is neither of these things because people don’t
really die when death—whom the speaker pities—comes to
them; nor will the speaker truly die when death arrives for
him.

9. Analysis
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
 Comparing death to rest and sleep—which are like images of
death—the speaker anticipates death to be even more
pleasurable than these activities.

10. Analysis
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
 Furthermore, it’s often the best people who go with
death—which represents nothing more than the
resting of the body and the arrival of the soul in the
afterlife.

11. Analysis
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
 Death is fully controlled by fate and luck, and often
administered by rulers or people acting desperately. The
speaker points out that death is also associated with
poison, war, and illness.

12. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

13. Analysis
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke;
 Drugs and magic spells are more effective than death
when it comes to rest, so death has no special reason to
be proud as he isn’t particularly special.

14. Analysis
why swell'st thou then?
 With all this in mind, what possible reason could death have
for being so puffed up with pride?

15. Analysis
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
 Death is nothing but a mere sleep in between people’s
earthly lives and the eternal afterlife,

16. Analysis
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
 which death can visit them no more. It is instead death—or a
certain idea of death as something to be scared of—that is
going to die.

17. 1. Personification
Personification means to attribute human features to non-human things. Donne has personified death
throughout the poem, stating it should not be proud. Being proud is a human quality. Hence, death is
given a human quality of having feelings and emotions.
 Deathbe not proud
 Slave to fate
 Why swell’st thou then?
 Thoushalt die

18. 1. The first is used in the opening line “Death, be not proud.” Here
death is compared to a proud man.
2. The second is used in the ninth line, “Thou art slave to fate.”
3. In the last line is an extended metaphor where death is compared to
the non-existent or unrealistic object.
2. Metaphor

19. Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same
lines of the poetry such as the use of :
/th/ in
“And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then”
“ for, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow.”
/m/ sound in
“Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow.”
2. Alliteration

20.  Irony means a statement that may mean something different from,
or the opposite of, what is written. Irony often expresses something
other than their literal intention, often in a humorous way.
For example:
“Death, thou shalt die.”
4. Irony

21. Themes
Courage in death
Powerlessness of death

22. Messages
Death isn’t scary as it
seems
An advice on how to handle
death when it comes.
Death isn’t eternal, its only a path to an eternal
life.

23. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC