Donne

Assignment: Perform a close reading of Holy Sonnet 72 . This includes an analysis of the literary devises Donne used. Then discuss the primary theme of the poem. Include quotations to support your contention

Death (Holy Sonnet 72)

The poem Death is one of the Holy Sonnets. These sonnets are part of Donne's later religious poems. The sonnet form that Donne uses for this poem is Petrarchan. It is a 14 line poem containing two parts, an octive (lines 1-8) and a sestet (lines 9-14). In the traditional Petrarchan sonnet there is usually a difference of tone, imagery, or attitude between the two parts of the sonnet. Here, however, there does not seem to be any break, except in the rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme of the octive is abbaabba. The rhyme scheme of the first four lines of the sestet is cddc, but the last two lines do not rhyme.

The theme of this poem is clearly religious - the Christian belief that death will be overcome in eternal life. In this poem the speaker talks to death directly in a very self-confident way. The certainty that the poet has in eternal life after death is evident in the very first two lines of the poem "Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for, thou are not so,..." This is a striking beginning for a poem about death because people normally fear death as the end of life. But the poet denies this. He doesn't deny that death exists, but he does say that those who die "die not" thus pointing to the spiritual side of our existence. Thus death is not as "Mighty and dreadful" as it might seem.

The rest of the poem gives arguments why death should not be feared. The poet points out, for example, that the "rest and sleep" which are commonly associated with death can be a source of pleasure if we understand them as the end of our