English Chronicles of Time ( Death not be Proud) 2.2
Ref. To the Context (5-Marks)
CHRONICLES OF TIME
Death Be Not Proud (John Donne)
Described By– Dr. Pooja
RishiKul Sanskrit College Gurugam
Explain Stanza with Reference to the Context: (5marks)
Stanza – 1
Death not be proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, not yet canst thou kill me
Reference to Context:- These lines quoted above have been taken from the poem ‘Death Bo Not Proud; written by John Donne. In this lines, the poet says that Death is neither terrible nor powerful. It has no effect on the soul of a person. So death should not fell proud of it power.
Explanation :- The opening of the poem a highly rhetorical and declamatory. Here the poet personifies the death. He say that death should not be feel proud. Although some people have called it powerful and fearful, yet in actual it is not so. Those people whom death things to have killed, do not actually die.
Their souls become immortal. Death does not have the power to kill the poet either. In other words death has no effect and power over the soul. Donne considers death as a poor thing, not a mighty one. By culling death ‘poor’, the poet pities death for its powerfulness and vulnerability.
Stanza – 2
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go
Rest of their bones, and souls’ delivery
Reference to Context:-
These lines quoted above have been taken from the poem ‘Death Bo Not Proud; written by John Donne. In this poem the poet says that Death is neither powerful nor fearful. It has no power over the soul. So it should not be proud of itself.
Explanation :-In this stanza the poet say that death is not frightening.
The poet attempts to provide us with the reasoning for his argument. If we derive pleasure from rest and sleep, which are only copies or pale imitations of death, we must derive even greater pleasure from death itself, which is real thing.
Moreover the poet says that those people die young whom God loves most. Death can kill only the bodies of persons and not the souls. After death the bones get rest and souls become free and immortal. Death actually gives rest to our bodies and release to our soul. It actual gives birth to the soul which earlier was encaged in our body. So death is not fearful and terrible.
Stanza – 3
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war , and sickness-dwell,
And poppy , or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally ,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Reference to Context:-These lines quoted above have been taken from John Donne’s poem ‘Death Bo Not Proud. In these lines, the poet says than man should not be fearful of death as it has no power over the soul. Sleep and rest, which are only images and pictures of death, give us a lot of pleasure.
Explanation :-In these lines the poet blasts the popular belief that that
death is all-powerful death, in fact, is a captive or slave to power of fate, chance, cruel kings and bad men. Opium and other narcotics are as effective as death in inducing us to sleep. They, actually, make our sleep better. Death cannot operate at its all level; it has to seek the help of poison, war and sickness to show its efficacy in which’s company death lives. Death is only kind of short sleep, after which the soul will wake up to live forever. Moreover the soul conquers death.
It is the death which itself dies because death has no power over the soul of a person. In a way Donnie degrades death and declares as happily the importance of death.