An analysis of the self-destructive aspect in John Donne’s poem Death Be Not Proud.
This paper discusses how John Donne’s poetry contains many ideas centered around spirituality and the soul, ideas that give an insight into Donne’s own state of mind and delves into the suicidal undertones that are present in his poem Death Be Not Proud. It reviews the poem itself and links it to Donne’s suicidal feelings, using autobiographical and psychoanalytical approaches as well as referencing some of Donne’s letters he had written that back up this suicidal theory.
Donne’s self-destructive, suicidal inclinations are not only seen in his work, but also in his personal life. In the 1608 letter to Goodyer, Donne reveals that his study literally sits atop a crypt (Trevor 13). The letter reads I have occasion to sit late some nights in my study, (which your books make a pretty library) and now I finde that room hath a wholesome emblematique use: for having it under a vault, I make that promise me, that I shall die reading, since my book and grave are so near (Donne quoted in Trevor 13). Further on in this same letter, Donne writes I have often suspected myself to be overtaken . . . with a desire of the next life; which though I know it is not merely out of a weariness of this, because I had the same desires when I went with the tide, and enjoyed fairer hopes than now . . . .(Donne quoted in Siemens 2).