John Donne and Emily Dickinson, in their poems “Let Death Not Be Proud” and “Why I Could Not Stop for Death”, personify death in order to explain the phenomenon of death and, above all, the wonder of eternal life. In his sacred sonnet “Let Death Not Be Proud,” John Donne uses personification to characterize Death as a weak antagonist, unworthy of the terror he causes. In her work "Why I Could Not Stop for Death", Emily Dickinson also personifies death, although her attitude towards death differs from that of Donne. Unlike Donne, who berates Death as an unimportant figure, Dickinson suggests that Death is a charming suitor who distances Dickinson from life. Although their conceptions of death are different in nature, both Donne and Dickinson see life beyond death. That belief in immortality even reaches the point of personification in Dickinson's work: death is represented as leading the transition period, from the world of the mortal to the world of the immortal. This attitude towards immortality and death in "Death Be Not Proud" and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is supported by the authors' use of personification and imagery, both of which generate an image of death as simple travel companion. to the timelessness of the afterlife. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay John Donne uses personification extensively in “Death Be Not Proud,” creating the impression of death as a weak and irrelevant adversary. The first lines of the sonnet read:Dickinson realizes that the carriage's final destination is into eternity. This final moment of understanding restores the figure of immortality to its importance in the poem and supports Dickinson's belief that death, while alluring, is merely a companion guiding Dickinson toward eternity. In “Death Be Not Proud,” John Donne also uses visual imagery to support his attitude toward death. The sonnet exposes death as a less powerful figure than common perception believes and, in lines 9-10, Donne achieves this by revealing death as a “slave” to more powerful evils: “You are the slave of fate, of chance, kings and desperate men, / and dwell in poison, war and disease. Donne's choice of words is an important aspect of his imagery. Powerful words such as “destiny,” “king,” “poison,” and “war,” combined with the comparison of death to a “slave,” serve to reduce the force of death. The images become even stronger considering the historical context, a time when war and disease were rampant. Donne also uses the image of sleep as a comparison with death. Although sleep is a common comparison to death, this relationship is emphasized in "Death Be Not Proud" because sleep is depicted as a source of satisfaction: "From rest and sleep, which are but your images, / Much pleasure " (lines 5-6). The image of sleep continues in line 13, the first line of the final couplet: "A little sleep past, we awake eternally." Just as Donne uses sleep as a representation of death, so he also uses its counterpart, waking, as a representation of eternal life. The visual images that Donne uses to examine death are not as strong as his overall personification, but they adequately support Donne's goal of illustrating death as a weak figure who has no more control over life than a brief sleep. Emily Dickinson's use of visual imagery in "Because I Couldn't Stop for Death" is her most powerful device., 2007.