if Death was a member of our class i think i would mostly likely avoid him. i think that its human nature in most countries and cultures to see death as a negative aspect in their lives, something that we humans don't tend to celebrate. of course there are some countries who do, but if death would become a person i don't think that it would be someones first instinct to approach them and be nice. The poet in the poem is speaking to death in an angry yet fearless way. its as if the poet is showing confidence to speak t the death the way he is, like he's not scared to "mess" with death.
2) Death with a Capital "D" means that death is personified as a character representing the idea of death. Why might Donne Choose to personify death?
As read from the poem Donne chooses to describe death as "dreadful", "Mighty" and "Proud". this highlights how the author wants the readers to consider death as a real person and not just a "concept", the fact that he uses a capital D only enhances the idea of the personification.
3) What is the speaker's tone in this poem? What words or phrases tell you so?
When the author writes " Die not poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me..." it seems like he has sort of a stubborn tone. the author throughout the poem wrote phrases that represent criticism towards death it self when he writes "And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell ....". also if we take into consideration that the author mentioned in the poem that death can die too, also shows his attitude and tone towards death and making death seem not as "powerful" or "better" than anyone else if death was a person. again the author fearlessly describes death, and it seems as if the author is writing to show that he is not afraid to approach death and tell him all these things that he wrote in the poem.
4) What reasons does the speaker give that Death should not be proud?
Since death is being described as a person here, and the way that the author is criticizing death like its a disease, suicide, or war, then this is nothing someone would be proud of if they believed in all those "acts", people would immediately hate them and want to stay away from them. the author seems to be angry at death, and only wants to denounce it in a way, and continue criticizing death to shame it, and that "death should not be proud".
5) The dominant metaphorical concept in this poem is DEATH as ADVERSARY. In what ways is death like an adversary?
Of course to most people and writers death will be written as the "enemy", as something that a writer would write in a most certainly negative way. it is rare that someone would describe death as a good thing. of course, people might regard death as the celebration of someones life, but death in most peoples lives can be devastating and will definitely be considered as adversary. Death isn't something we can take back, its a part of life yes, but it can also be tragic.
6) If death is an adversary, how does the speaker suggest death can be defeated?
The speaker suggests that even though we cant take back the fact that someone can die, we can learn how to escape that death can take over us, even after we've lost the ones we loved. if we do grow a mentality that death cant defeat us, and we can escape its negative effects on us and easily move on with life, then death can no long be powerful, and we can be capable to have power of it instead.
7) What does the concept of DEATH as ADVERSARY tell us about our culture? What might be some other ways of viewing death be?
I think that the poem gives us hope in a way of defeating death, and to be fearless against it. it gives us a different view point of death other than it being very powerful in someones life, and something we cant defeat. i think that in our culture, or in most cultures at-least, people like to stay away from anything that has to do with death, and it think it also has something to do with peoples religions as well within their own culture. many religions see death as something that is normal, its a way of life, and something that happens from god, but it definitely isn't seen as something that people should be happy about and celebrate it, but to pray for the person who dies, where we have to acknowledge it and move on.
Although Jana has a good point for question 6, but in my opinion she did not responde to the question fully, she can do so by refering back to the poem it self, for example when it mentions how death shouldn't be proud because of the people who commite suicide or when people die in fights and wars, and all these deaths are out of deaths hand so these are all different ways death can be defeated. :)
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