Poetry Ch. 14 Pattern (1)

"Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, and dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell." (972)

This quote comes from the poem, "Death, be not proud" by John Donne. The poem is an example of apostrophe. The speaker is addressing death and explaining to death that it should not be proud of what it does. The speaker addressing death in an apostrophe is effective because it shows that the speaker is addressing and confronting his fear. In addition to addressing death, the speaker is trying to convince himself that death is nothing to be afraid of. Death affects every single person, whether they are a king or desperate man. Death cannot be proud because it accompanies poison, war, and sickness, things that are sad and that we try to avoid. I think that the speaker is trying to convince himself that even though he is eventually going to die, but that does not mean that death got the best of them. Eventually everyone will wake up eternally after a short break from our current life. Therefore, we will have triumphed over death unlike what we are currently experiencing with death being the victor.