Holy Sonnet 10

Holy Sonnet 10

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;

For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] be,

Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,

And better than thy stroke ; why swell'st thou then ?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die.  

          I found reading John Donne's Holy Sonnets in class quite enjoyable. The gist of Holy Sonnet 10 is that Donne is insulting "Death" and saying he isn’t afraid of it. Our own mortality isn’t an easy thing to think about and honestly I am quite scared of the prospect of death. I believe that our fear of death is a result of our fear of the unknown. I’m always a little bit scared whenever I experience something new, but at least when I try something new I normally have someone to tell me what the experience is like (at least, for them). Sadly, with death, there is no one to tell you that it’s not as scary as you think because no one can come back and explain what death is like after they die.

          In this sonnet, Donne personifies Death and presents Death as mortal. This makes death significantly less frightening. Death is shown to be a “slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,” (9) without which it could not survive. Donne also makes death less scary by stating that death is only a “One short sleep” (13) after which “we wake eternally” (13.) After we have woken eternally, “Death shall be no more” (14) and Death “shalt die” (14) for those who are dead. This sonnet shows Donne’s faith in his beliefs that when we die, we are simply moving from one life to another, bringing our soul and leaving our bones.

          Holy Sonnet 10 is an interesting poem that reassures us that Death is not as bad is we think it is. It encourages us to live our lives as best as we can without worrying too much about Death, as it is only a short sleep after which we wake eternally and Death, poison, war, and sickness are no longer with us.

Sonnet 67

Sonnet 67

Lyke as a huntsman, after weary chace,

Seeing the game from him escapt away,

Sits downe to rest him in some shady place,

With panting hounds, beguiled of their pray,

So, after long pursuit and vaine assay,

When I all weary had the chace forsooke,

The gentle deer returnd the selfe-same way,

Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke.

There she, beholding me with mylder looke,

Sought not to fly, but fearlesse still did bide,

Till I in hand her yet halfe trembling tooke,

And with her own goodwill her fyrmely tyde.

Strange thing, me seemd, to see a beast so wyld

So goodly wonne, with her owne will beguyld.

I think Spenser’s 67^th sonnet is well-written and created brilliant images for the reader. In this sonnet, the speaker is a huntsman chasing a doe, which is the symbol for the woman he loves.

In the beginning, the woman is wild, untameable, and will not give in to the man’s chase. The huntsman can not catch her, so he gives up and decides to take a break at a nearby brook. While he is resting, “[she is] thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke” (8), and so they meet. The woman is now gentle, timid, and gives him a “milder look.” He wants to have her and she comes to him of her own accord. This surprises the speaker because the woman was so wild before, and now she is tame. Spenser used the hunt as a metaphor for how the more we chase something, the more it get away from us, but wait may  what we want.

I found lines 9-12 interesting because Spenser describes the doe as both “fearelesse” and “trembling” in them.  At first, this appears to be contradictory, but if I interpret the word “trembling” to refer to longing or excitement (rather than fear) it is consistent with the deer’s expression of “goodwill” when she is “fyrmely tyde.” The action of tying or restraining the deer can imply the view of patriarchy, which is one of many possible readings. It can also be interpreted as the tying of marriage, which may be less oppressive. Despite second possible interpretation, in my opinion, the final couplet: “Strange thing me seemd to see a beast so wyld,/ So goodly wonne with her owne will beguyld,” reemphasizes a sense of masculine superiority (13-14). In these lines, Spenser suggests that rather than the hunter having to chase the deer, she willingly puts herself into captivity.