Alex Brogan
Dual English 12
Honaker
3/14/17
Billy Collins’s poem “My Number” and “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne presents Death in action. Death’s description is suggestive of personification. Throughout the entirety of each poem, each author has his specific way of writing, but they personify Death to be something bigger than it truly is. These poems share a common theme in that it takes an assertive stand against mortality. It makes the paradoxical statement that mortality is itself mortal. In other words, Death doesn’t exist in the long run.
In “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne, The speaker begins with Death, who he refers to as a man. The man counsels Death not to be so pleased, on the grounds that he's truly not as alarming or effective as a great many people think. The speaker begins talking in disagreements, saying that individuals don't generally bite the dust when they meet Death, and neither will the speaker. At that point, he truly tries to blaze …show more content…
The speaker is not brave in talking to Death, but is afraid. If personification civilizes Death and gives it life, perhaps taking away personification can end Death’s life? "Is something so? (first three stanzas)" to "I will (line 17)" to "I begin talking" bring Death closer and nearer in time. The hypothetical turns into a clearer, more definite future, lastly to a progressing present. Toward the end, the activities stop, personification of death stops. Death is no longer a man who can make game plans or stop a car. The pronoun for death is no longer a "he" yet a "this (line 17)," a clear unclearness that is here. The feeling of fate all through the sonnet foreshadows the inability to make Death human, and this last word talks about the more essential disappointment: after personification, Death’s life
Dual English 12
Honaker
3/14/17
Billy Collins’s poem “My Number” and “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne presents Death in action. Death’s description is suggestive of personification. Throughout the entirety of each poem, each author has his specific way of writing, but they personify Death to be something bigger than it truly is. These poems share a common theme in that it takes an assertive stand against mortality. It makes the paradoxical statement that mortality is itself mortal. In other words, Death doesn’t exist in the long run.
In “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne, The speaker begins with Death, who he refers to as a man. The man counsels Death not to be so pleased, on the grounds that he's truly not as alarming or effective as a great many people think. The speaker begins talking in disagreements, saying that individuals don't generally bite the dust when they meet Death, and neither will the speaker. At that point, he truly tries to blaze …show more content…
The speaker is not brave in talking to Death, but is afraid. If personification civilizes Death and gives it life, perhaps taking away personification can end Death’s life? "Is something so? (first three stanzas)" to "I will (line 17)" to "I begin talking" bring Death closer and nearer in time. The hypothetical turns into a clearer, more definite future, lastly to a progressing present. Toward the end, the activities stop, personification of death stops. Death is no longer a man who can make game plans or stop a car. The pronoun for death is no longer a "he" yet a "this (line 17)," a clear unclearness that is here. The feeling of fate all through the sonnet foreshadows the inability to make Death human, and this last word talks about the more essential disappointment: after personification, Death’s life