Samantha Glover

Ms. Dill
British Literature
29 April 2020
The Defiance of Death
To help convey the speaker’s complex attitude towards Death in the poem “Death Be Not
Proud,” John Donne utilizes these four elements of literature: capitalization, anaphora, diction,
and poetic meter. As seen from the use of capitalization, the speaker sees death both as an event
and as a person. The speaker berates Death, “Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me” (l.
4). Although many others are afraid of death, the speaker is not. The capital “D” indicates that
the speaker is directly addressing Death. The speaker challenges Death and he believes that he is
stronger than Death itself. According to the speaker, Death is weak and it will soon succumb to
its very own death: “And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die” (l. 14). Even after the
event of death, souls will continue to live on while Death has completed its job. The speaker
defies Death, and he tells Death that it too will die.
John Donne applies anaphora, or the repeated use of the conjunction, to buttress the
speaker’s argument against Death. The speaker suspects that Death is not as mighty as it seems:
“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?” (ll. 10-12). The speaker provides more
evidence against Death’s boastful claims by using the repetition of the conjunction “and.” Since
“poison, war, and sickness” and “poppy or charms” can mimic death, the speaker questions why
Death is so proud (l. 10-12). Furthermore, the speaker insists that those methods induce sleep
better than Death can. Death does not perform its duty well, as many other instruments can also
perform Death’s job to the same caliber.
The exertion of diction throughout the poem showcases the speaker’s intense feelings
towards Death. From line 1 of the poem, the speaker exclaims, “Death, be not proud.” While
others are too scared to address Death, the speaker is brave enough to do so. The speaker
immediately chides Death for its ego, for the speaker greatly disagrees with Death’s prideful
ways. The speaker continues to scold Death by calling it a “slave to fate, chance, kings, and
desperate men” (l. 9). By calling Death a slave, the speaker acknowledges that Death truly has no
power of its own. Death cannot control fate or the future, for Death is simply a puppet that
follows orders from those of a higher power.
Throughout the poem, the poetic meter is in iambic pentameter, which illustrates the
speaker’s acceptance of death as an event. Iambic pentameter is constant throughout the poem:
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally,/And death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die” (ll.
13-14). John Donne manipulates the unstressed syllable followed by the stressed syllable to
represent a beat similar to a heartbeat. To live, one must die, and the speaker understands that
death is a natural part of life. The speaker thinks of death as a gateway to eternal life. The poetic
meter, or the heartbeat, concludes at the end of the poem, which alludes to the death of Death
once its task has been complete. With the implementation of the literary devices of capitalization,
anaphora, diction, and poetic meter, John Donne was able to exhibit the speaker’s impassioned
feelings towards Death, but also the speaker’s acceptance of death.