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One of the most fascinating views of life is the contextualists perception. Contextualist's seek to understand the essential human passions of the world. As a contextualists interpreting a poem, it is portentous to observe the passion of the poem. A contextualist draws the sensations out of the poets mind. It focuses on the emotional thoughts and vivid ideas created in the picture painted by the poet. There is always a picture, some sort of portrait of emotion the writer wants to express to the reader in order to build a connection.
The connection is made when he can successfully duplicate the same picture in his mind to the reader. Contextualist's seek the deeper meaning behind the story. They appreciate the vividness and intensity that life, and even death, has to offer. No poem of John Donne's is more widely read or more directly associated with Donne than the tenth of the Holy Sonnets, Death, be not proud. Donne's reputation as a morbid preacher was well-known.
He had a portrait of himself made while posed in a winding-sheet so that he could contemplate a personalized memento of death. Donne draws upon a popular subject in medieval and Renaissance art, Le roi mort or King Death. His fascination with death reaches another plateau with this poem. He almost welcomes it and denounces the process as being neither horrifying nor the end-all be-all.
In a contextual point of view, he works to rupture habitual thinking and bring attention to the intensity and depth of a situation by creating doubt or offering a new aspect of his subject. Donne takes this poem and pours forth an array of visions that directly connects to the contextualist in a look at death, the passing of one world to another, as well as Death, the character. With an impertinence that is characteristically Donne's, he deflates Death in the opening salvo. He discounts the power of death as a mere fiction: Death, be not proud, though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. / For those whom thou think thou dost overthrow/ Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. He attacks traditional understandings of Death and works to denounce the horror, perhaps to offer a new revelation of death; one well appreciated. Donne hits several perceptions in the poem.
The first is the perception of death as Mighty and dreadful. In the first quatrain, Donne is establishing a contradiction he is about to make to this perception. Right away the contextualist sees that there will be a truth revealed to him about the actual nature of death. Donne aggressively steps up and punctures Death in the very beginning to capture his audience with intensity. The contextualist is drawn into the poem from a natural curiosity to know more truth. The next thing Donne does to his audience is display an absolute rejection of any power Death, the character, has over him.
In the poem he speaks to Death, but the message aspires to reach the multitude. Telling Death that he actually does nothing significant to those he thinks he overthrows, forces the audience to consider a new truth and move away from traditional thought. Donne incites the audience to contemplate the possibility of Deaths lack of power. Not only does Death not hurt others, more important is Donne's statement, nor yet canst thou kill me, ultimately denouncing Death entirely.
In the second quatrain, Donne says that if fatigue-induced sleep, one of lifes greatest blessings, is the very picture of death, then how much more pleasure will come from death itself? Donne proposes to change the perception of death as an unfortunate and unpleasant experience once again, in this statement. The contextualist sees Donne as optimistically awaiting death. Even the virtuous go with Death, to the Rest of our bones, and souls delivery, which presents the notion of death as something that our best men venture to encounter. It is more of a peace and tranquility that Donne offers here; a welcomed rest at our lifes end. Contextually speaking, there is more to life after death and it should not be feared, but rather embraced.
The next perception about death comes in the third quatrain? the image of death as vile accompaniment to evil forces in life: Though slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, / And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell. However, here he does not try to change the traditional pairing of death with evil. Instead, he uses that perception to further demonstrate Death. Donne makes associations with the most loathsome effects and casts him in their same light to burst his ego. The poet even notes that narcotics or witchcraft (poppies or charms) can outdo death in making people sleep, since drug-inducing trances or hexes are not as permanent as death.
Therefore, how much power does Death actually have if there are many things in this world that can produce its same effects. The superiority of these human-based modes of death takes away the last shred of dignity for death: Why swells thou then? Donne's confident reliance is based on the victory of Christ over Death through the Resurrection: One Short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shalt be no more. Death, thou shalt die. He offers a natural and desirable end to life and its experiences, adding to the Christian idea that death is the avenue to eternal salvation. The final insult preserves the Christian belief in everlasting life while denying death the continuance of his own life.
The verbal effects that Donne performs in this sonnet cannot disguise the fact that as a Christian he must entertain these two ideas of death: death as rescuer, and death as evil demon. The contextualist sees that in the end, all that he can do in order to deal with the enormity of death is to turn the sting of death against death itself. It is his way of making death conceivable and even something to which he can look forward to. Furthermore, Donne's usage of carefully crafted words and phrases helps stir a vivid image of intensity within the contextualist's mind. Some key words in this poem that help to create a negative picture of Death are mighty and dreadful, as they are both immediately countered. The countering of the words mighty and dreadful help give Death an image of the direct opposite meanings: weak and not so dreadful.
For those whom thou think thou dost overthrow/ Die not, poor Death The contradiction about Deaths actual power is illuminated with the negation of the word die using the word not. When this is what Death does for a living, that is, make things die, his potency as a monstrous force is diminished with a simple negating word. The next instance of a contradictory phrase is with poor Death. Death is not usually viewed as being poor and is traditionally not to be sympathized.
Similarly, Death is not usually looked upon as a slave either. Donne uses his technique of upsetting habitual thinking in order to create depth to his poem. Donne traps Death into a dismal state of being and consequently, underrates his character. He does this again in the last line of the poem when he says, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. He actually condemns Death to death itself, trapping him into a finite existence.
This is the deeper meaning the contextualist draws out of the poem. On the surface, we look at the last line as a sort of foretelling of the future or simply deflating Deaths ego by illuminating his imminent mortality. In actuality, the contextualist discovers that Donne has usurped Deaths powers by condemning his existence and taking it away from him. The words Donne uses to associate Death with odious, evil beings give the contextualist the sense that Death is as low as those people and objects. But further than that is the idea that Death is actually lower than the lowest forms of wickedness, as Donne depicts him as a slave to those lowly beings. Death is a slave, the lowest class of any society, to those vile things.
Again, Donne belittles Death and insults his ego using words of vivid imagery for impact and shock effect. He chose his words carefully in a way that the contextualist can feel the conviction behind his lack of respect and disgust for Death. Donne's poem, Death be not proud, has a powerful message that hits the senses in a search for his true meaning. The words, as well as the vivid imagery used in his poem form a pattern that expresses his overall theme brilliantly. The pattern is contradiction.
He wants to contradict all conventional thoughts the reader might have had all his life beforehand, and dispel them, giving him the sense that there is an intensity about his convictions that must lead to some truth. The contextualist can really delve into the inner soul of Donne and discover his fears as well as his strengths in encountering death. I see myself associating to a contextualist much more than any other world hypothesis. I look at the world in search of what true qualities it bears and the passion it invokes. I want to question every traditional thought I was taught growing up so as to find my own truth rather than rely on the path that others have taken. My development into a contextualist started as a very young girl but seemed to have skipped some years where I feel I did not add to my intellectual strength much at all.
Those years lasted from junior high through high school, which is probably no surprise. Those tend to be our most rebellious years. However, I am not so sure my college years are not more rebellious. I find that the more I learn about myself, the more I want myself to know the worlds passions, vivid qualities, and truths.
As a very young girl, my mother tells me, I always seemed to be lost in thought. I was constantly daydreaming. I wanted to become either an actress or an archaeologist. Both very adventurous, careers seeking either fame and drama, or uncovering the worlds secrets. I loved school. I was very competitive and used to bring home impressive grades, especially in my reading and writing subjects.
I used to read all the time and had a very large vocabulary. I do not know what happened to me after elementary school, but learning no longer interested me. I sort of took a vacation from learning between primary school and college. Not that my grades slacked, because they never did.
That was not allowed in my house. But my actual learning just stopped. I did the work but I got nothing out of it. There was no depth to my soul. Then I left home. College has been the most influential event of my life- to this point.
Since leaving home, I have picked up my thirst for knowledge of the world once again. My most informative classes are my majors classes. That is why I became an English major; I knew that I would learn something of value about the world. The English major goes beyond technical knowledge because it gives me knowledge I will use the rest of my life. Whereas the technical courses along with the engineering courses, give limited amounts of knowledge and will not serve a purpose in everything I will do in life. What I have learned in my English classes I will be able to apply to love, work, my family and friends, as well as culture.
My biggest development came this year, my junior year, as I am able to go out and see more of the world now than any of my years here at the Academy. I have changed considerably this year. There is so much I have found I want to see and do. There is so much I want to become.
I have plans for all kinds of classes I want to take once I graduate from the Academy. After graduation, I feel I can begin to really learn. I read more now than I have in years. I go to the bookstore in the mall and pick up all kinds of books. I tend to like fictions more than non-fictions, but that is just the dreamer in me.
I pick up spiritual books often times to help develop my spirituality because it invokes thought within me. Thoughts lead to the search for the truth and its intensity. I welcome it with open arms now. Religion has been an area of doubt for me for many years.
My faith in the Christian religion has wavered so much, yet there was so much I did not know. So I took a Bible and Literature class this semester. It was the best decision I could have ever made. I learned so much from studying the Bible as a piece of literature rather than a faith.
It allowed me to question the teachings I learned as a young child, and I did not feel guilty for disagreeing with what I had learned. It has made me want to learn more and question more in order to experience the true passions behind religious faith. In conclusion, I am a contextualist thinker / perceiver of the world. Poetry is of the most mysterious and wonderful pieces of literature, in my opinion, because it allows your mind to reach into the depth of your soul and express emotion and truth through passion.
Free research essays on topics related to: death be not proud, perception of death, young girl, deeper meaning, vivid imagery
Research essay sample on Death Be Not Proud Perception Of Death
