Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the literary theme of death in a specific historical context. It examines the way death is juxtaposed and contrasted with allusions to violence, life, love and sex, building up a discussion of whether we should ultimately read death as positive or negative in Renaissance poetry.

From the Paper:

"Meanwhile, Donne's 'Holy Sonnet 1' begins with death as an imminent threat. It appears as early as the first line with the word 'decay' , which, when we link it to the similar threat of death in 'To His Coy Mistress' with its 'worms shall try that long-preserved virginity' (ll. 27-28), appears almost certainly to refer to posthumous decay. Moreover, the repetition of 'now' (l. 2) twice in the same line and words like 'I dare not' (l. 5) convey the speaker's urgency and fear because of death. However, with closer reading, it may not be simply death that the speaker finds threatening. Towards the middle of the poem, Donne twists the reader's expectations by beginning to mention 'sin' (l. 8) and 'our old subtle foe' (l. 11) as a reference to the devil. "

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