The entire sonnet, Donne speaks directly to Death. He personifies what to man has always been a spirit and has never been touched, seen or furthermore killed. He gives Death life, and therefore makes it mortal, exposing it to pain, torment and eventually defeat.
In the firs quatrain of the poem, John Donne aggressively and directly addresses Death, his tone critical and belittling. He begins by saying, “death be not proud… for thou art not so;” which openly challenges Death’s authority and power.
By referring to Death as a person, he makes it easier for the reader to bring Death down to a level of weakness and venerability, allowing us to examine it to see what Death really is.
Humans have always been slaves to Death, running from it, and trying to prevent it. In line 9, (“Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men”), the speaker goes against that to say that Death is a slave to fate, chance and us. Without fate nothing could be determined, therefore, our fate is truthfully what controls our lives and deaths. It decides when our time has been completed on this earth, and then comes Death to take us away. Chance plays a huge part in ones destiny as well, because at any time, anything could happen that will also require Death to come. We, however, play the largest role when it comes to our deaths. Both desperate men and kings can cause Death at any time; therefore we should leave open the option that we control what happens to us after all. Next in line 10 he says “And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell” therefore, not only is Death a slave, but it also dependent on people in order to survive. Death is shown a sense of insecurity in lines 3-4 when the speaker says, “For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.” Donne is telling Death that all those who it think it killed it really didn’t, and that it can’t kill him, again proving that Death is not what takes lives but what takes lives but what delivers them. Death is also compared to sleep in line 5 by suggesting that if rest and sleep bring much pleasure, then Death must have much more to offer. Although we tell Death it does not control what our destiny is, we still recognize that eventually all of us will get there one way or another at stated in lines 7-8, “And soonest our best men with thee do go, rest of their bones, and soul's delivery”. Donne also states that Death is, as we, a “slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men” which expresses his view that Death has no more power over us that these. This is due to the fact that Death cannot collect our souls unless these people act to cause our demise. Donne portrays Death as a scavenger who “dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell” (10) because, it is implied, Death must wait these to act before it may do its deed. Donne then criticizes Death even more, when he says, “And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well, and better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?” (11-12). This is a continuation of the comparison between Death and sleep, where Donne means that there are other ways to bring about a sleep state, some of which are more potent than Death’s stroke. He explains this statement when he says that Death is “One short sleep past, we wake eternally” (13) which is to say that sleep of Death is short lived in comparison to that of an opium sleep due to our awakening to the after life. In the final couplet Donne explains what becomes of Death once it has taken our life. Donne says, “And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.” (14) Clearly expressing the fact that once Death delivers us through a short sleep to eternal life, Death itself is rendered useless and will “die” throughout the poem.
“ Holy Sonnet 10” gives us power over death and reassurance that it is not to be feared. In the poem we are given reasons why Death is so insignificant and why it should be humbled. Why should we fear something that makes us sleep like drugs and caters to the orders of others? Death claims the greatest men when they’re too tired to live. Death, humble yourself because you are a small part of life. When everyone has gone through his/her moment of death and then has risen, “Death, thou shalt die”.
Brief biography of the poet Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10 1930 in Amherst, in western Massachusetts, and died there on 15 may 1886. Her family was well off and well educated (Both her parents were college graduates). Emily had a strong secondary education and a year of college at South Hadley Female Seminary. After her year at school, Emily Dickinson lived in the family home for the rest of her life.
Though Emily Dickinson wrote hundreds of poems, she never published a book of poetry. The few poems published during her lifetime were anonymous. The reasons why she never published are still unclear. Even though her poems were virtually unpublished, she has profoundly influenced the direction of 20th century poetry.
How does Emily Dickinson see death in her poem
“Because I could not stop for Death”?
In Dickinson’s poem, “because I could not stop for death”, there is much impression in the tone, in symbols, and in the use of imagery that exudes creativity. Dickinson’s masterpiece lives on complex ideas that are evoked through symbols, which carry her readers through her poem. Emily brought to light the mysterious of life’s cycle. Ungraspable to many, the cycle of one’s life, as symbolized by Dickinson, has three stages and then a final stage of eternity. Mary N. Shaw recognizes these three stages as follows: “School, where Children strove” (9) may represent childhood; “Fields of Gazing Grain” (11), maturity; and “setting sun” (12) old age. In addition to these three stages, the final stage of eternity was symbolized in the last two lines of the poem, the “Horses Heads” (23), leading “towards Eternity” (24).
The poem, “Because I could not stop for death”, presents Death as a gentleman, come to take the author away from life. It is written in a contemplative tone, as if the details of her ride with death were fuzzy and the specifics hard to make out.
Dickinson invites her reader into the “Carriage”. Death “slowly” takes the readers on a sight seeing trip where they see the stages of life. The firs site “We” passed was the “school, where children strove” (9). Because it deals with an important symbol, the “Ring” this first scene is perhaps the most important. One author noted, “ The children, at recess, do not play (as one would expect them to) but strive” (Monteiro George). On this invited journey, one vividly sees the “children” playing, laughing, and singing. This scene conveys deep emotions and moods through verbal pictures. The imagery in the final scene, “We passed the Setting Sun,” proved very emotional (12). One can clearly picture a warm setting, perhaps, over a grassy horizon. When Dickinson passed the “setting sun” night drew nigh and it was time to go home and sleep. Symbolically, her tour of life was short. While sight seeing in the carriage, one can gather, by the setting of the sun, that this ride was lifelong. It is evident that death can creep up on his client. In example, often times, when one experience a joyous time, time seems to “fly”. In the same respect, Emily Dickinson states, “Or rather – He (the setting sun) passed Us?” (13). This line indicates that a pleasant time was cut short (15,16). Before she knew it, the cold “Dews drew quivering and chill” (14). The tone of the poem changes accordingly and becomes much colder as the couple goes from passing children on a playground and the setting sun, to passing chill dew and arriving at a graveyard.
This poem exercises both the thoughts and emotions of its reader and can effectively change one’s viewpoint of an eternal future. Eternity and Death are two important characters in Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death”. In fact, eternity is a state of being. Dickinson believed in an eternity after Death (24). Agreeably, one can say that Emily Dickinson’s sole purpose in this poem is to show no fear of death. This poem then, puts on immortality through an act of mere creativity.
Both, Emily Dickinson and John Donne, show no fear of death. The contrast between them is that Donne aggressively and directly addresses Death, his tone critical and belittling, and on the other hand Dickinson’s tone is a more tender one (by using the words “kindly”, “slowly”). Donne compare death to sleep or drugs and in Dickinson’s poem, her ride with death was fuzzy and the specifics were hard to make out- like a dream.
By: Gal Shalem
Presented to: Juliet aharoni
“Ramot-Hefer” high school
8. 4. 02
