Death Be Not Proud

A sonnet is a 14-line poem. “Death, Be Not Proud” consists of elements of the Petrarchan sonnet form, named after the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch, as well as the English or Shakespearean sonnet form. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines) in which a situation or problem is presented, followed in the sestet (six lines) by a resolution. In this respect, Donne’s sonnet tends to follow the English sonnet, which often consists of three quatrains that develop the argument or situation before reaching an epigrammatic conclusion in the final couplet. However, Donne does not follow the standard rhyme scheme of the English sonnet. Instead, he comes closer to the Petrarchan form, rhyming his lines ABBA ABBA CDDC AA.  That is, Line 1 rhymes with Line 4, and Line 2 rhymes with Line 3 in the first two quatrains, followed by a new set of rhymes in the third quatrain and then a final rhyming couplet that also rhymes with the first and third lines of the poem. The Petrarchan sonnet rhymes in similar fashion, ABBA ABBA, but then usually CDECDE in the sestet, so Donne departs from the Petrarchan rhyme pattern in that respect. Donne’s sonnet is therefore something of a hybrid in form and shows his originality.

The meter of the sonnet is basically iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. It is the most common meter in English poetry. Donne makes many substitutions to the basic iambic rhythm to create variety and emphasize certain words against the expected metrical base. As a result, just four lines of the sonnet are in regular iambic pentameter. These are as follows: “From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be (Line 5); “And soonest our best men with thee do go” (Line 7); “And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell” (Line 10), and “And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?” (Line 12).

The main substitutions are with spondees. A spondee is a poetic foot in which both syllables are stressed. Donne employs spondees (1-4, 6, 9, 13, and 14), often in the first foot. For example, the first foot of Line 1, “Death, be,” is a spondee, as is the first foot of Line 4: “Die not.” Other spondees include “chance, kings” (Line 9) and “Death, thou” (Line 14).

On just two occasions, Donne uses a trochee, which is the opposite of an iamb, comprising a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. The first foot of Line 2: “Mighty,” is a trochee, as is the first foot of Line 8: “Rest of.”

Regarding pronunciation, in Line 1, to observe the correct iambic rhythm, the word “called” should be pronounced as two syllables, callèd, thus: “though some have callèd thee.” Also, when a final vowel is followed by an initial vowel, Donne often intended that the two vowels should be elided. This applies particularly to the word “thou,” so in Line 9, “Thou art” should be elided to “thou’rt” to preserve the meter (the iamb foot with which this line begins: “Thou art slave”) even though this is not shown in the printed or online text. (When “thou art” occurs in Line 2, it does not need to be elided because to do so would interfere with the rhythm and leave the line one syllable short.) Also, the word “desperate” in Line 9 is pronounced as two syllables, “desp’rate,” rather than three. This ensures that the final two feet in that line, “and desperate men,” are both iambic feet.