Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so./ For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow/ Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me." He attacks traditional understandings of Death and works to denounce the horror, perhaps to offer a new revelation of death; one well appreciated. Donne hits several perceptions in the poem. The first is the perception of death as "Mighty and dreadful." In the first quatrain, Donne is establishing a contradiction he is about to make to this perception. Right away the contextualist sees that there will be a truth revealed to him about the actual nature of death. Donne aggressively steps up and punctures Death in the very beginning to capture his audience with intensity. The contextualist is drawn into the poem from a natural curiosity to know more truth. The next thing Donne does to his audience is display an absolute rejection of any power Death, the character, has over him. In the poem he speaks to Death, but the message aspires to reach the multitude. Telling Death that he actually does nothing significant to those he thinks he "overthrows," forces the audience to consider a new truth and move away from traditional thought. Donne incites the audience to contemplate the possibility of Death's lack of power. Not only does Death not hurt others, more important is Donne's statement, "nor yet canst thou kill me," ultimately denouncing Death entirely.In the second quatrain, Donne says that if fatigue-induced sleep, one of life's greatest blessings, is the very picture of death, then how much more pleasure will come from death itself? Donne proposes to change the perception of death as an unfortunate and unpleasant experience once again, in this statement. The contextualist sees Donne as optimistically awaiting death. Even the virtuous go with Death, to the "Rest of our bones, and soul's delivery," which presents the notion of death as something that "our best men" venture to encounter...
