The Man Who Laughs At Death

John Donne’s “Death be not proud”, otherwise known as Holy Sonnet X, was part of a collection of nineteen sonnets that were published after John Donne’s death. Donne wrote several poems challenging death, his most notable being his “Death’s Duel” sermon, which he delivered when he was on the verge of death himself. Although the exact year in which “Death be not proud” was written is unknown, many believe it to be between 1601 and 1610. Throughout the entire poem the speaker dismantles death from something feared and unknown to something weak and irrelevant. His challenging something that is so universally feared is what makes the poem so captivating. The language in the poem is relatively simple, which allows the speaker’s confidence to shine through. It is this confidence that makes death seem less terrifying.

“Death be not proud” is a fourteen-line sonnet consisting of an eight-line stanza, called an octave, and a six-line stanza, called a sestet. This kind of sonnet is commonly known as a petrarchan sonnet, with the octave presenting the theme and the sestet developing it. In this particular case the octave presents the idea of why death is not as powerful as people believe it to be, “For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow, die not . . .” (4). The speaker then goes on to explain why he doubts death’s power in the sestet. The poem takes the rhyme scheme ABBA, ABBA, CDDC, EE and while the meter varies, most of the lines are in iambic pentameter.

The ways in which Donne describes death in the poem are essential to the overall theme of removing death from its pedestal. Words like “poor” or “slave” causes death to appear flawed and almost pathetic. It is these same words and more that help Donne personify death and have it be the person he addresses throughout the poem. In the opening line “Death be not proud . . .” (1), this simple command signals that death is the one the poem is directed at. The most obvious personification is the speaker’s referral to death as “thou”, “thee”, and “thy”, which of course translates over as “you” and “your”. By awarding death possessive pronouns Donne makes it seem less conceptual and more physical, since clearly it is quite difficult for ideas to have ownership over something. They say “to err is human” and by humanizing death it is easier for the speaker to point out its imperfections. The speaker makes several acute observations about death and how it truly is a lowly slave to luck, hoping for wars, accidents, murders, and plagues just so it can have a purpose and “put men to sleep”. However, as death fails to see, a simple potion made from a poppie or some kind of incantation can also cause men to sleep—and do a better job than death can.

Donne focuses on the Christian ideal of life after death throughout the poem. The line “an soonest our best men with thee do go, rest of their bones, and souls delivery” (7) talks about how even though death may have condemned a man’s body to a coffin, his soul continues to live on for all eternity in heaven. It is this belief in the afterlife that ends up being the death of death, for there is no such thing as “dying” any more, “One short sleep past, we wake eternally” (13). When we “wake eternally” our souls remain alive forever, only the physical part of man is gone. Death has no right to be proud since not even he can take away a person’s soul.

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