Christian Kaulius
Mr. Kliest
AP English 12
1 March 2010
Holy Sonnet 10 Paraphrase
John Donne's "Death, Be not Proud", also known as Holy Sonnet X, is a fierce sonnet that personifies death as a real entity that is not to be feared. Donne elaborates throughout this piece how death is far from fearful, but instead, an abstract figure to be pitied, for it is death that will truly die in the end.
In first four lines, Donne verbally assaults death in explaining that death has little power over anyone: "Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so, / For, those, whom thou think'st, though dost overthrow, / Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me" (1-4). Despite death's ability to overthrow all men, Donne attempts to overthrow death itself in claiming that death has no right to feel any accomplishment in his work. Donne invokes the literary term known as apostrophe, where a speaker will address a non-human entity, as if it were part of the conversation. Donne explains that while some do fear death, (those who see him as "mighty and dreadful") Donne staunchly claims that he should not be feared by anyone, for death cannot truly kill anything. Thus death is actually regarded as "poore" here, as if Donne takes pity upon him. After all, he is literally called death and yet he cannot cause death in any sense, a tragic irony. Donne also uses alliteration here with “death…dreadful…dost…die”. He also uses assonance when the o sound repeats in “those” and “overthrow”.