The Inevitability Of Death In John Donne's Sonnet 130

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John Donne in Death be not proud and Edgar Allen Poe in Spirits of the dead explore the idea that Death is an unavoidable part of life, but this death is not all powerful, as the spirits of those who have died, live on. Donne’s Sonnet has an aggressive tone, it is an attack on death, a mocking and satirical challenge,’. . . poore death. . . Thou art a slave. . .’ whereas Spirits of the Dead emphasises the inevitability of death in a sombre, resentful tone. Donne’s personification and apostrophisation of Death suggests that Death is a physical thing, ‘. . .though some have called thee/Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not soe,’ and ultimately, after everyone has moved through death and gained eternal life, that it will not be needed, he mocks …show more content…
They are one of the things that are the most desired in the world, as well as one of the most flawed things. In the poem The Primrose by John Donne, and in William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 this ‘perfect un-flawlessness’ is articulated. The Primrose uses metaphor throughout the poem, using the image of a primrose flower as a woman. The speaker talks about the five qualities that make a woman desirable: infinity, love, beauty, sex and manna, and if a woman possesses these qualities, then they could be able to take any man they wish ‘First into this, five, woman may take us all.’ Any other qualities that they may possess should be accepted by man as ‘Falsehood in woman, I could more abide/She were by art than nature falsified.’ Shakespeare has a similar approach to the theme of a woman. Sonnet 130 talks about a woman, a woman not of ideal beauty, her ‘eyes are nothing like the sun;’, and her ‘hairs be wires,’. Shakespeare describes this woman in a very contrasting way in comparison to the love poems of his predecessors, he uses simile and compares the physical appearance of his mistress to the things that are most desired, ‘I have seen roses damask’d red and white/But no such roses see I in her cheeks;’ However, he never mentions that any of these flaws are negative, in comparison to Donne. In The Primrose, Donne makes sure to talk about how otherworldly and goddess-like all women are ‘And where their form and their infinity/Make a terrestrial Galaxy/As the small stars do in the sky’ This juxtaposes the attitude of Shakespeare, ‘I grant I never saw a goddess go/My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.’ He has never considered that his love would be anything but a mortal woman. Sonnet 130 then closes with the idea that, even though these flaws would turn away other men, his love for her is greater than any shortcomings, ‘And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false

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