Death is Ineffectual in Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

existence. The speaker challenges death with assurance that emanates from his strong faith in God. His strong faith is felt when he bluntly declares that death cannot kill him, but is instead the enabler of new, immortal life.
The second quatrain explains why death does not actually influence the world:

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 soul's delivery. (5-8)
Despite the fact that death scares the majority of men, Donne exemplifies the benefits which can be brought by death. He insists that death does not always being grief and fear, but asks the reader to consider death as peaceful sleep and rest that restores the body’s energy. For that reason, he asks the reader, why be afraid of something that only brings benefits? Why be frightened? Interestingly, for those men who die young, he declares that death is relief–a pathway to rest and the ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: