DEATH BE NOT PROUD:

JOHN DONNE

By Kathryn Koop

The Man

Born 1572 in London, England Studied at Oxford and Cambridge Married Ann More, the niece of his

employer, in 1601 Converted to Anglicanism and became a

minister in 1615 Published many works in prose, poetry,

and sermons Died in London on March 31, 1631

The Poet

“the first poet in the world of some things”

Founder of the Metaphysical Poets

Known for his use of paradox, unique imagery, and metaphysical conceits

“His poetry shows us a man who was at once religious, sensual, erudite, passionate, and argumentative…” – Lytton Strachey

The Legacy

Poetry Satires (1593)

Songs and Sonnets (1601)Divine Poems (1607)Psevdo-Martyr (1610)An Anatomy of the World (1611)Ignatius his Conclaue (1611)The Second Anniuersarie. Of The Progres of the Soule (1611)An Anatomie of the World (1612)Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)Deaths Dvell (1632)Ivvenilia (1633)Poems (1633)Sapientia Clamitans (1638)Wisdome crying out to Sinners (1639)

Prose Letters to Severall Persons of Honour (1651)

A Collection of Letters, Made by Sr Tobie Mathews, Kt. (1660)

Essays A Sermon Vpon The VIII. Verse Of The I.

Chapter of The Acts Of The Apostles (1622)

A Sermon Vpon The XV. Verse Of The XX. Chapter Of The Booke Of Ivdges (1622)Encania. The Feast of Dedication. Celebrated At Lincolnes Inne, in a Sermon there upon Ascension day (1623)Three Sermons Upon Speciall Occasions (1623)A Sermon, Preached To The Kings Mtie. At Whitehall (1625)The First Sermon Preached To King Charles (1625)Fovre Sermons Upon Speciall Occasions (1625)Five Sermons Vpon Speciall Occasions (1626)A Sermon Of Commemoration Of The Lady Dãuers (1627)Six Sermons Vpon Severall Occasions (1634)LXXX Sermons (1640)Biathanatos: A Declaration of that Paradoxe, or Thesis that Selfe-homicide is not so (1644)Naturally Sinne, that it may never be otherwise (1647)Essayes in Divinity (1651)

The Legacy, cont.

“We have no poet today…who can skip from the heights of scholastic philosophy to the heights of carnal passion, from the contemplation of divinity to the contemplation of a flea, from the rapt examination of self to an enumeration of the most remote external facts of science and make all, by his strangely passionate apprehension, into an intensely lyrical poetry.” – Aldous Huxley

Death Be Not Proud

Written as part of his “Holy Sonnets” Employs metaphorical conceit

throughout; personifies death Mocking tone derides death and

dismisses the fear that people attribute to it

Makes the point that death isn’t the horrible and all-powerful force people think it is

Works Cited

Dash, Bibhudutt. "The portrayal of death in Donne's 'Death Be Not Proud' and Jaroslav Seifert's 'The Mistress of the Poets': a comparative study." Language In India Jan. 2012: 164+. Gale Power Search. Web. 12 Feb. 2012

Donne, John. The Complete and Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne. Modern Library Paperback. New York: Random House, 2001. v-viii. Print.

. “John Donne.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 10/1. Web.16 Feb. 2012.

Pictures: http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/jdj/   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donne