Death Be Not Proud by John Donne and When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be by John Keats - Research Paper Example

 "Death,Be Not Proud" by john Donne and "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" by John Keats 1. Where do their ideas differ? Where are they similar? Why do you think the speaker in "Death, Be Not Proud" suggest that Death is Proud? The speaker concludes with "death, thou shalt die. "What is the speaker's reasoning to support this?  The two poems may have the same topic which is death but the way how death was seen by both authors differs significantly. John Donne personified death to make it vulnerable and thus not to be feared. Iinstead of talking about it in abstract or in a way that a common man would, like the end of life or something fearful, Donne personified death with all the qualities and characteristic of man which is animated and tangible. And by personification of death, he made it vulnerable just like man where he can lodge his faith against it where man can triumph over death. The opening sentence “Death be not proud, though some have called thee” is not a coincidence for Donne already personified death for his succeeding arguments to have basis. And from then on, Donne assailed death not as something dreadful but as something that is with “Much pleasure, [that] from thee, much more must flow”. He removed its fearful sting by subscribing to Christian faith (the poem is a part of a Holy Sonnet after all). The pleasure is in fact a symbolism of faith and not the earthly joy as we understood it. It is the “transformation” of perspective from fearing death to embracing it not as a menacing tyrant but a kind messenger that will transform us from this imperfect, to that perfect world above where the Heavenly God presides. In modern language, we call Donne’s “pleasure” of death as being in a “better place” where there are no more miseries, problems and worries. In Donne’s poem, Death was suggested to be proud in the passages where its menacing implements was mentioned such as “poyson, warre, and sicknesse”. They are the things that make death proud because they could “cause death that makes death fearsome”. John Keats “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” poem on the other hand viewed death in the traditional way, something that should be feared because it ends life and all its wonderful endeavor. 2. Do you agree? Keats was only twenty-three years old when he wrote this poem-and died at twenty-six so young death turned out to be reality for him. What is the speaker especially anxious about? To what extent is this surprising for a poet? In a way, death turned out to be a reality for John Maynard Keats because he spoke of death in a way that could end things and aspirations. Death turned out to be a reality for Keats because it ended and even did not make his great aspirations come true which are success, fame and love. He was not able to enjoy his rising popularity or fame because his life was ended by his death (albeit he is one of the most esteemed poets of all time) at a young age of 26 and he did not have that kind of love which is as “Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,” but he rather “never live to trace their shadows, with the magic hand of chance” when he died. It was a poignant poem that can be likened to signing own’s frustrating death warrant of not getting what was important to the author. His anxiety that death would catch up with him before he finds love of rupture proportion, of enjoying fame and success actually came true when he died ata tender age of 26 with all the promise of his brilliance put on an abrupt halt. It is a documentation of his disappointment as if he wanted death to visit him to frustrate his aspiration and happiness. Unlike Donne who spoke of something spiritual in his poem “Death be not proud” that belittled the menace of death which in effect removed its sting of ending life, Keats did the reverse. He first enumerated his aspirations; love of rupture proportion, fame, success, writing them melodically to stress how important they are to make him happy, and instead of writing in the style of Donne that blunts death’s sting, Keats instead sharpened the fangs of death. He made it so by emphasizing that these are the things that makes him happy are not going to be achieved or happen because he is pretty sure that he will soon die. And he will die even before finding his true love (albeit he knows that it will make him happy), before he will enjoy his fame and success. And die he did at age 26 when the world is still a promise. The poem in a way served as his own prediction of his own death, a death wish to die unhappy. 3. If Keats had lived much longer and had been older when he wrote this poem, do you think the speaker's anxieties might have been different?  I think love, fame and success are spices of life that is wanted regardless of age. The only difference that would make is perhaps the intensity and the passion of the kind love of which Keats wanted in the poem "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be". It may be tempered when he writes another poem assuming he lived longer to be able to compose it. Or, he may write a love poem to the effect of Browning’s “How do I love Thee” when he found the love of his life. It is not a remote possibility given Keat’s brilliance. He does not look that bad also and given additional time, he might have at least found, even did not have it, the object of his love. The other two of Keat’s desires, which are fame and success will still be a part of his anxiety as a poet and a writer had he grown older but will no longer be central to his concerns. Had he grown older, his perspective will also widen and his world may no longer be just exclusive to what he thinks and feels but may include the universe around him. Given Keats brilliance, his anxiety might evolve and could include the problems of society and such, he may be able to write also treatises about society, government and nature just like other poets and writers in his time had written during their maturity. Works Cited Donne, John. "Death be not proud" . 1618. Keat, John Maynard. “When I have fears that I may cease to be”. 1821   Read More