Death Blog Post #5

"Death, be not Proud" by John Donne

PERSONIFICATION: attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object

#3 Discuss the tone of the poem. Is the speaker (a) a man of assured faith with a firm conviction that death is not to be feared or (b) a man desperately trying to convince himself that there is nothing to fear in death.

 First off, the poem constantly refers to death as "thou" and talking about death as if it were a person and had human qualities. It says, "Die not, poor death, nor yet cans though kill me" (Donne 971). The author is talking to death directly saying that it cannot die, nor can it kill him. He also refers to death as being poor. I think the author has assured faith and a firm conviction that death is not to be feared. He seems almost kind of mean to death saying that people say that he is mighty and dreadful, but in reality he is not because only those who think that are those who he can defeat. The author calls death a "slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men" (Donne 971). He is saying that death has no control over what happens, it all depends on the men and chance which means that death really has no power at all. Death may come, but we will always wake eternally, so the author has faith that death is not to be feared. He says that when we awake eternally, death is no longer and will die itself.