Deconstruction of the poem

Deconstruction of the Sonnet, “Death, Be Not Proud” by John Donne(1572-1631)

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 pictures 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 art 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.

Deconstruction on the Verbal level: Donne in this sonnet, used binary opposition: death, mighty, dread, sleep, pleasure, fate, king, men, poor, past, slave, sickness, and wake. He privileged somewhere the first, and somewhere the second opposition. When there is no life, then there will no death. He didn’t talk about the life, and directly he jumped to death. There is a contradiction in the second line, metaphorically, he compares death with Might and dread, but in the next part of the sentence, he contradicts it, for thou art not so. Same is the pattern followed by the author in the preceding line, like ‘’Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.’’ In the next lines, the author is not sure about the exact adobe of death, i.e. how a person dies? Either in war, taking venom, and with sickness.

Deconstruction on the Textual level:  At this stage, we will looking for shifts or breaks in the continuity of poem. There may be shifts in focus, a shift in time or tone, the point of view, attitude, pace, and vocabulary. There are shifts in this sonnet, Donne first addresses to death that you are not powerful or dreadful as some think. But later he realizes that death is more powerful because we can’t reach to eternity without death. Death is the date between God and man. There is hopeful opening in the opening lines of the sonnet, but the sonnet ends with a paradox. According to the author, death is a slave of fate, accident, the power of the king, and criminals. But the question arises here is; death is more powerful and mighty then how a mighty entity is a slave to fate, accident, the power of the king, and criminals. So, there is a contradiction in the ideas of the author.

Deconstruction on the Linguistic level: This stage involves, for instance, saying that something is unsayable; or saying that it is impossible to utter or describe something and then doing so; or saying that language inflates, or deflates, or misrepresents its object, and then continuing to use it anyway.  In the given poem, Donne death is shown proud. But the question is; how death be proud of its power? There is no reason at all for death to be proud. According to the author, death can make us sleep only for a short while. Ontologically speaking, I don’t speak from religion point of view, how death makes us sleep? Epistemologically speaking, say its correct, but who told you? Can you trust someone? So, ontology is rejected, epistemology is rejected, and linguistics is also rejected.