holy-sonnet-10.doc

Holy sonnent10 译文

死神，你莫骄傲
死神，你莫骄傲，尽管有人说你
如何强大，如何可怕，你并不是这样；
你以为你把谁谁谁打倒了，其实，
可怜的死神，他们没死；你现在也还杀不死我。
休息、睡眠，这些不过是你的写照，
既能给人享受，那你本人提供的一定更多；
我们最美好的人随你去得越早，
越能早日获得身体的休息，灵魂的解脱。
你是命运、机会、君主、亡命徒的奴隶，
你和毒药、战争、疾病同住在一起，
罂粟和咒符和你的打击相比，同样，
甚至更能催我入睡；那你何必趾高气扬呢？
睡了一小觉之后，我们便永远觉醒了，
再也不会有死亡，你死神也将死去。

介绍The Holy Sonnets are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne.
Many of the poems are believed to have been written in 1609 and 1610, during a period of great personal distress and strife for Donne who suffered a combination of physical, emotional, and financial hardships during this time. This was also a time of personal religious turmoil as Donne was in the process of conversion from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism, and would take holy orders in 1615 despite profound reluctance and significant self-doubt about becoming a priest. In Holy Sonnets, Donne addresses religious themes of mortality, divine judgment, divine love, and humble penance while reflecting deeply personal anxieties.
ToneHopeful Highly influenced by the diction and imagery
Analysis该诗以语意的逐层递进为特点，由三组四行诗和一个偶句组成。
第一组四行诗以拟人的手法呼吁死神不要骄傲，（“Death, be not proud”）起句突兀，表达了对死神的嘲笑和蔑视，然后立刻指出死神不应骄傲的第一条理由：For those, whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
第二组四行诗指出死神无需骄傲的另一条理由：死亡不过是更安逸的休息、更甜美的睡眠，“Much pleasure, then from thee much more must f low,”人们都会争着希望得到身体的休息，灵魂的解脱，“Rest of their r bones, and soul’s delivery.”
第三组四行诗嘲笑死神奴隶般的从属地位：“Thou’rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,”并以罂粟和咒符来衬托死神的无能为力：“And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke”既然这样，你何必趾高气扬呢？“why swell’st thou then?”
这三组四行诗以不同的理由对死神威胁的解构确实已非同一般。然而，接下来的偶句并不放过对死神的最后一击：睡一小觉之后，我们便永远觉醒了，再也不会有死亡，不可一世的死神将走向自身的死亡，“And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”诗歌的说理递进模式在此戛然而止，生与死原有意义上的关系彻底逆转：死亡是瞬间的，将很快不复存在，而死后的欢乐则是永恒的，人对于死亡的畏惧变成了死亡自身的恐惧，死亡对于人来说不过是通往幸福永生的大门。
In this poem, Donne uses a variety of poetic elements. These elements function in enhancing the work’s unconventional theme of man's superiority over death.
Throughout the poem, there is a strong use of assonance, the repetition of vowel sound within a phrase. The sound of the words helps in structuring Donne's writing. Nearly every line contains a repetition of "o" sounds. In the following line, an example of this device is clear: “Die not poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me." The frequent use of assonance does not directly enhance the poem's theme, yet it does help convey its message more vividly by making the lines flow, thus allowing the reader to understand each stanza more easily. Since each individual line and its associated thought are easy to understand, the central idea of the entire poem is easy to understand too.
John Donne effectively uses tone to enhance the poem's theme. The work has a tone of triumphant confidence and defiance in the face of death. Donne boldly denounces death, making it clear that he is not controlled by the fear of it as others often are. Although many may believe death to be mighty and dreadful, he feels this is not so. Donne sees death as being dependent on mankind for its survival. Death relies on fate, chance unfortunate occurrences, the legislation of kings, and the actions of desperate men to claim its victims. This dependence in itself is a weakness, in that death is not self-supporting, yet relies on certain aspects of the lives of people. Donne's final and most derogatory comment comes in the poem's final lines where he portrays death as nothing more than a transition into an eternally vast afterlife; Death is a short sleep from which we wake forever. It is nothing to fear in this situation. And, in this afterlife, death no longer exists or poses a threat. Death itself dies. All of these examples of Donne's use of tone greatly enhance the poem's theme that man is superior to death. Death's intimidation is diminished as he points out its weaknesses one by one and bravely faces it head on.
It is also something not commonly personified and spoken to. The combination of a personified Death and the reference to it by means of apostrophe is very effective and crucial to the poem's theme. Donne is better able to profess (openly declare) his superiority over death by showing it as a human adversary, capable of defeat, rather than an uncontrollable natural force. His desire to prove his freedom from the imprisonment of fear is visible in the angry and arrogant monologue he presents to death in his poem. Donne’s feelings are better expressed in a situation which people can relate to — a confrontation in which one party addresses another. The superiority theme is enhanced as a result of this man-versus –man conflict depiction.
Theme：Man is superior to Death死亡是瞬间的，将很快不复存在，而死后的欢乐则是永恒的，人对于死亡的畏惧变成了死亡自身的恐惧，死亡对于人来说不过是通往幸福永生的大门。这种强烈的戏剧化效果和反讽意味的获得最终是通过悖论语言实现的。
..“Death Be Not Proud” is among the most famous and most beloved poems in English literature. Its popularity lies in its message of hope couched in eloquent, quotable language. Donne’s theme tells the reader that death has no right to be proud, since human beings do not die but live eternally after “one short sleep.” Although some people depict death as mighty and powerful, it is really a lowly slave that depends on luck, accidents, decrees, murder, disease, and war to put men to sleep. But a simple poppy (whose seeds provide a juice to make a narcotic) and various charms (incantations, amulets, spells, etc.) can also induce sleep—and do it better than death can. After a human being’s soul leaves the body and enters eternity, it lives on; only death dies.
Figures of Speech Donne relies primarily on personification, a type of metaphor, that extends through the entire poem. (Such an extended metaphor is often called a conceit.) Thus, death becomes a person whom Donne addresses, using the second-person singular (implied or stated as thou, thee, and thy). Donne also uses alliteration, as the following lines illustrate:
Alliteration For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then
One short sleep past, we wake eternally (Note: One begins with a w sound; thus, it alliterates with we and wake.)
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die
Metaphor Thou [Death] art slave to fate, chance kings, and desperate men
Comparison of death to a slave
Metaphor With Personification Death, be not proud Comparison of death to a person
Paradox and Irony Donne ends the poem with paradox and irony: Death, thou shalt die.
Ø Poetic elements:
Ø Assonance(半谐音) refers to the repetition of vowel sounds within a phrase. Nearly every line contains a repetition of “o” sounds.
For example, “Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me”.
The frequent use of assonance does not directly enhance the poem’s theme, yet it helps convey its message more vividly by making the lines flow, thus making readers to understand each stanza more easily.
Ø Personification
Capitalizing Death (line 1)
Donne personifies death in his poem, capitalizing the word and giving it the human trait of pride.
By telling death not to be proud, he implies death does not have the ability to feel proud.
Ø Apostrophe
Addressing Death (line 1)
Donne addresses someone (death) intangible in this poem.
Ø Enjambment
The running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one verse line or couplet to the next without a punctuated pause Lines 1-2
All these poetic elements’ function in this poem is emphasizing the theme of man’s superiority over death
The poem implies an unspoken fear that death can still pack a wallop — only good and faithful Christians will enjoy eternal life, while everyone else will spend eternity suffering the pains of hell, a fate that Christians believe to be much worse than death.
Purpose of Commas?
A comma creates a pause in the sentence
How is the poet trying to define death in this sonnet?
A small pause in our existence
Style： wrote a complex, highly intellectual verse filled with intricate and far-fetched metaphors.
His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially as compared to that of his contemporaries.
John Donne's masculine, ingenious style is characterized by abrupt openings, paradoxes, dislocations, argumentative structure, and "conceits” images which yoke things seemingly unlike. These features in combination with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax, and his tough eloquence were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques.

² Rebellion against the conventional imagery of the Elizabethan lyric.
² Poems are intellectually complex
² Irregular rhythms, stanzas
² Colloquial, condensed language, give and take of actual speech
² Use of metaphysical conceit: ingenious, strained; links images from different contexts; intellectual; subtle argument
Samuel Johnson: “…a combination of dissimilar images or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike. The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together. Nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons and allusions…”.
Summary
John Donne's poem deals with the subject of death, commonly used in various literary works. The speaker expresses his view that death is not Something to be feared, as it oftentimes is, and has been, since the beginning of time. He then goes on to explain the basis for his argument. He points out the weaknesses of death and, with a triumphant and confident tone, declares his victory over it by means of his lack of respect and fear for its implications. Donne belittles death by commenting on its strong dependence on humanity. He goes on to describe it as a mere transition, which does not serve as an end, but instead, a new awakening to an eternal afterlife.
Comments
² Some critics argue that Donne's speaker is trying to convince himself that death is not to be feared, and failing dismally;
² The poems’ various arguments do not at all address the speaker's basic fears. E.g., he argues on flimsy evidence that death must be better than sleep (5-6), then that sleep is better than death (11-12). The last 4 words of the poem, which should crown the argument, actually undermine it: if death is nothing to be afraid of, the speaker can hardly use it as a threat.
² John Carey notes, "He stamps his foot with fine dramatic conclusiveness, and plummets straight through a trapdoor. It spoils the act, but improves the poem, for it shows how little its reasoning have impinged on the speaker's basic fears.“
² Carey's insight into this poem is generalized by R.T Jones: it is frequently claimed that Donne's poetry shows a complete union of thought and feeling, but Jones argues that what we usually get is the exact opposite, a sense of conflict or tension between what the heart wants to be true or fears to be true and what the mind knows or can argue; a sense of the poet always trying to convince himself of something. We noted this possibility in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.
² But we would not be thinking in terms of terror at all if we had taken seriously the earlier arguments, e.g., "from rest and sleep"- we don't take this seriously because we do not really accept that the relation between death and sleep is in all important respects the same as the relation between a picture and the thing depicted; we cannot really believe that if a picture gives us pleasure the thing it depicts.
Holy Sonnet 10
--Death, to be not proud
The poem is addressed to physical death which poet thinks is not frightening. And then the poem explains why death is not afraid worthy. Within those words there are several themes
From line one to line four, poet presents his different attitude towards death and shows his courage. Death is mighty and dreadful, and can kill people freely to some people, but poet overthrow the impression. Poet tells death not to proud, and he even calls death a poor death. The so-called mighty death thinks he has the power to kill people, but actually he does not. But how could death be death without the power of killing. Poet quotes the definition of death in the Bible. The Bible describes death as separation: physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, and spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. The death in the poem is physical death. Death can not kill people, because death can not destroy the spiritual life.
From line five to line eight, poet compares the death to rest and sleep, and presents the death of best men. Rest and sleep brings pleasure to people, but death can bring more pleasure than rest and sleep. So, there is no reason for people to afraid of death. After the best men followed with death, their physical bodies get pleasant rest and their spiritual life just begin.
From line nine to line twelve, poet introduces the methods that death uses to kill people physically. Death only is a hatchet man for fate, chance, kings, and separate men. Fate is thought to control everything happens to people, including when should one dies. Chance is the opposite of fate. Chance is luck, the possibility of things that will happen to someone. Kings are from different perspective. Kings are real power in human world, but they can also have the power to decide one’s life. Desperate men have no power to control their fates; they have no chance or power. However, desperate men can make a suicide choice. They have the rights to control their own life. Poison, war, sickness dwell, poppy and charms are the methods death uses to kill people.
In the line five and six, poet compares death to rest and sleep. In the line thirteen, “the short sleep past” means the physical death past; “we wake eternally” means our spiritual life just begins. During this piece of work, John Donne had suffered a major illness during his eighth year as an Anglican minister that had brought him close to the grasp of death. The last line was an announcement to show poet’s determination and courage.
There are three themes within the fourteen lines: courage, death and wish.
Courage is the obvious theme in the sonnet. Throughout the entire poem, poet never drops his guard. Call death a poor death; compare death with rest and sleep; list the methods death uses to kill physical life are the expressions of courage against death. Poet belittles the