G. M. Hopkins Heaven-haven
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- First quatrain
- Second quatrain
- Third quatrain
- Making fun of death
- Personification
- Monosyllables
Death not the endTo understand the poem fully, we need to know three things:
More on resurrection: see The Exequy by Henry King The poem is best understood as three quatrains and a concluding couplet. First quatrainThe first quatrain states the theme, with its central paradox that those whom death touches do not really die. That is because of the Christian hope of resurrection and immortality. Paul writes, using the image of a grain of wheat: ‘it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body’ 1 Corinthians 15:44. Second quatrain The second quatrain takes the idea that sleep and death are allied, one being an image of the other (‘thy pictures’). Sleep is pleasant, therefore death must be, so why fear it? In fact, the best people, that is those who are most pure in their lives, die most quickly, because they know their soul will be ‘delivered’ into a new life.
Third quatrainThe third quatrain mocks death. Death is not in control of itself, but has to come wherever there is disease or war. So why is death so proud? Then he argues that opiates mimic death and much more pleasantly. Concluding coupletThis leads on to the triumphant couplet, that we shall wake into eternal life and death will be finished. The triumphant couplet echoes Paul's triumphant question: ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ 1 Corinthians 15:55, quoting Hosea 13:14 The poem is not an argument as such. Rather, it is a number of points piled up one upon another, not always quite logically connected, but nevertheless effective in building up to a climax. Investigating Death be not Proud
Making fun of deathPaul describes death as ‘the last enemy’ 1 Corinthians 15:26. Usually the ‘death of death’ is seen in Christian thinking in terms of the death and resurrection of Christ, as Paul presents it. But Donne strikes out in quite another direction. He confronts death and belittles it, in order to take away its ‘sting’. Death is seen as a boastful enemy (see Themes and signficant ideas > Death as friend or foe). Donne taunts it and in this way it loses its power in our imagination. PersonificationThe main figure of speech in Death be not Proud is the personification.
Metonymy ‘Poppy and charms’ refer to the use of opium and magic to produce sleep, or, ambiguously, to produce a gentle death. Technically ‘poppy’ is a metonymy rather than a metaphor: it is what is derived from the poppy that is the opiate, not literally the flower itself.
But then death is likened to a slave as well, and this is the startling conceit. It has no choice where it is to fall. ‘Fate, Chance, king’ are all examples of metonymy, suggesting certain reasons why death occurs:
MonosyllablesThe language of Death be not Proud is striking, though the vocabulary is not unusual. As often with Donne, it is the dramatic voice and the element of surprise that gives the language its force. The voice is helped by the unusually large proportion of monosyllabic words employed, much higher than normal: eight out of nine in the first and ninth lines; ten out of ten in the final line. You can do a simple count for yourself. Death is addressed in words totally opposite to those usually employed: ‘poor’, ‘slave’, ’nor yet can thou kill me’. Again, the monosyllabic precision of these simple words leaves no room for ambiguity or doubt. Donne is almost bullying death. The alliteration in l.3 brings this out well. Sonnet formDeath be not Proud is technically a Shakespearean, or Elizabethan, sonnet, consisting of three quatrains and a couplet. Typically, the couplet packs the punch, which it does here, though the preceding lines are not without their punches too. However, the rhyme scheme (abba abba) is that of the Petrarchan sonnet which has the first eight lines as a group or octave. The Shakespearean sonnet typically rhymes abab cdcd. However, the couplet rhymes of ee is typical of the Shakespearean form. Sonnets are typically in iambic pentameters.
Investigating Death be not Proud
In "Death be not proud" (Divine Sonnet X), Donne turns his rhetorical skills on his greatest poetic adversary - death itself. “Divine Sonnet X” by John Donne is one of his best-known religious poems. It famously begins “Death be not proud” and advances a stream of arguments to prove that man’s greatest fear has no power over him. ApostropheThe opening line, “Death be not proud”, is an apostrophe or address to an abstract figure. Donne favours apostrophes and dramatic monologues, which give an immediacy and urgency to his rhetoric – in his career as a churchman, Donne was a famous preacher, so it’s no surprise that many of his poems sound like dramatic speeches. In rhetorically picking on death, Donne is taking on a big adversary, though not entirely without precedent. There is an echo in the opening of St. Paul’s famous demand in 1Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” ArgumentsRather than developing a single line of logic, Donne throws several arguments at Death to try to humble it. “those whom thou think’st thou dost ovethrow/ Die not” he declares, without fully explaining what he means at this point. “Rest and sleep” seem to be the “pictures” of death, and these are enjoyable, he argues, so the real thing must be even more pleasant – and in any case “soonest our best men with thee do go”; if the good die young, why should anyone want to avoid it? In a brilliant turn of argument, Donne tells Death that it is not “mighty and dreadful” because it is merely a functionary, a “slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men”. Anything which can be whistled for by so many despicable causes is hardly to be respected. Its habitat is amongst “poison, war and sickness”, a realm which no-one would want to rule. This is typical Donne: grandiose, verbally aggressive, and picking up any argument, however specious or inconsistent, which can serve to support his cause. He even goes so far as to patronize the Grim Reaper, calling it “poor death” and demanding “why swell’st thou then?” ConclusionAs the poem ends he elaborates on his earlier statement that “those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow/ Die not...nor yet can’st thou kill me”, by pointing out that for Christians, death is merely the beginning of eternal life: “one short sleep past, we live eternally.” He encapsulates this in an even shorter phrase in the last line, mingling the consolation of the Christian faith with a paradox, and triumphing “Death will be more no more, death, thou shalt die.” Holy Sonnet Donne Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to'another due, Labor to'admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly'I love you, and would be lov'd fain, But am betroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me,'untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you'enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. SummaryThe speaker asks the “three-personed God” to “batter” his heart, for as yet God only knocks politely, breathes, shines, and seeks to mend. The speaker says that to rise and stand, he needs God to overthrow him and bend his force to break, blow, and burn him, and to make him new. Like a town that has been captured by the enemy, which seeks unsuccessfully to admit the army of its allies and friends, the speaker works to admit God into his heart, but Reason, like God’s viceroy, has been captured by the enemy and proves “weak or untrue.” Yet the speaker says that he loves God dearly and wants to be loved in return, but he is like a maiden who is betrothed to God’s enemy. The speaker asks God to “divorce, untie, or break that knot again,” to take him prisoner; for until he is God’s prisoner, he says, he will never be free, and he will never be chaste until God ravishes him. FormThis simple sonnet follows an ABBAABBACDDCEE rhyme scheme and is written in a loose iambic pentameter. In its structural division, it is a Petrarchan sonnet rather than a Shakespearean one, with an octet followed by a sestet. CommentaryThis poem is an appeal to God, pleading with Him not for mercy or clemency or benevolent aid but for a violent, almost brutal overmastering; thus, it implores God to perform actions that would usually be considered extremely sinful—from battering the speaker to actually raping him, which, he says in the final line, is the only way he will ever be chaste. The poem’s metaphors (the speaker’s heart as a captured town, the speaker as a maiden betrothed to God’s enemy) work with its extraordinary series of violent and powerful verbs (batter, o’erthrow, bend, break, blow, burn, divorce, untie, break, take, imprison, enthrall, ravish) to create the image of God as an overwhelming, violent conqueror. The bizarre nature of the speaker’s plea finds its apotheosis in the paradoxical final couplet, in which the speaker claims that only if God takes him prisoner can he be free, and only if God ravishes him can he be chaste. As is amply illustrated by the contrast between Donne’s religious lyrics and his metaphysical love poems, Donne is a poet deeply divided between religious spirituality and a kind of carnal lust for life. Many of his best poems, including “Batter my heart, three-personed God,” mix the discourse of the spiritual and the physical or of the holy and the secular. In this case, the speaker achieves that mix by claiming that he can only overcome sin and achieve spiritual purity if he is forced by God in the most physical, violent, and carnal terms imaginable. As with all the Holy Sonnets, this one has no separate title, merely taking the first half line as a title. It is probably one of the best known of all Donne's religious poems, since its images are so striking and dramatic. Donne uses the language of violent sexuality, as well as images of warfare, to make an impassioned plea to God for some spiritual breakthrough. Just as in his love poetry, Donne desired intensity and a complete experience. The most similar of Donne's other sonnets is As due by many titles.
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