Death in Poetry

An essay examaning the presence of death in the poems:

"Death be not Proud" by: John Donne

"Death in Life" by: Thomas Lord Vaux

"Upon the Image of Death" by: Robert Southwell

"Visions of Petrarch" by: Edmund Spenser


               Man is a mortal being, and being such everyone who lives, will die; this is the inescapable law that gives meaning to life. Without death, time would have no value, life would become meaningless.

               Death is an essential player in the game of life, but it is one of the most feared. Death is a recurring theme throughout the 16th century poetry studied in English 2273. Many poets such as John Donne, Robert Southwell, Thomas Lord Vaux and Edmund Spenser wrote poetry about death, detailing their experiences and feelings towards the inevitable. While each other has their own opinion and poetic style, they all come to terms with the fact that they will die. Robert Southwell’s poem “Upon the Image of Death” describes death as a picture hanging before the face of the narrator. Each day he is forced to look upon it and despite his avoidance, he knows he will die. “Visions of Petrarch” by Edmund Spenser similar describes death. The narrator in this poem looks out the window, and watched life pass him by, everything that begins, ends, and so he pains for death himself, knowing it will eventually come. Thomas Lord Vaux says that there is not life, but only death in his poem “Death in Life”. He depicts the notion that as soon as we are born, we start the process of dieing. He says there is no such thing as life, there is only death, and so there is death in life. These three poems all speak of death, mostly in disdain. John Donne talks of death in another light. In his poem “Death be not Proud” he shames death, denoting it as a slave to man and fate. Donne takes a more fearless look at death than Spenser, Lord Vaux and Southwell, but his poem is still a realization that death is coming.

               “Upon the Image of Death” by Robert Southwell is about a man forced to look upon the image of death each day. “Before [his] face the picture hangs” as a daily reminder that death is creeping closer and closer. The picture very possibly a mirror is a constant reminder to the narrator. As he ages he is forced to “look upon a face, most ugly, grisly, bare and thin” . Despite each day looking at this picture of eventual death, he seldom thinks of his own mortality...
I read the label underneath,
That telleth me whereto I must;
I see the sentence eke that saith
Remember, man that thou art dust!
But yet, alas, but seldom I
Do think indeed that I must die.
As the narrator ages, he sees the message, telling him “Remember, man that thou art dust!” He still avoids it and seldom thinks that he will die. But then through stanza five and six, the narrator is reminded of his life and his ways, and the poem switches from the avoidance of death to repentance, “and yet my life amend not I”. At this point he has accepted death thinks to himself, I should repent my life before I go, but he does not. He watches “his youngers daily drop away” whom he has outlived, and wonders if he can “scape (escape) alone?” but “No, no, [he] knows that [he] must die”. No one can escape deaths trap… Not Solomon for all his wit,
Nor Samson, though he were so strong,
No king nor person ever yet
Could ‘scape but death laid him along.
And so he knows that he must die, and finally asks god “that I my life may mend” before I die. The poem is clearly about death, but also about repentance. The narrator first avoids death, and then contemplates escaping the trap, but in the end, he knows that death is inevitable and wants to make amends for any sinful actions in his life. The message is clear, death is inevitable, and no one escapes.

               “Death in Life” by Thomas Lord Vaux is another poem about death. Unlike Robert Southwell, who saw death in the aged reflection of himself, and tried to escape its grasp, Thomas Lord Vaux takes the stance that as soon as you are born, you being to die. Lord Vaux describes a flower that will “fade and soon decay” as being “with dark clouds over-run”. He asks “is this a life?” and answers himself saying, “Nay, death you may it call”. The flower has no life, enshrined by the dark clouds the flower is just dieing. Lord Vaux continues his plight on life when he describes a beast without food, eyes without light, and a tongue without an ear,
What foodless beast can live long in good plight?
Or is it life where senses there be none?
Or what availeth eyes without their light?
Or else a tongue to him that is alone?
Is this a life? Nay, death you may it call,
That feels each pain and knows no joy at all.
Lord Vaux is saying that there is no life without sense, or joy, there is only death. A beast won’t last long without food, eyes are useless without light so that they can see, and a tongue need not speak if there is no one to listen. This is not life, but death, there is no joy only pain. He continues in his last stanza in the same manner with “whereto serve ears if that there be no sound?” His poem says that without joy, senses or companionship, this is not life, but death.

               Edmund Spenser writes about the view from his window in “Visions of Petrarch”; a poem very similar in aspects to “Upon the Image of Death” by Robert Southwell. Spenser’s window, to which he spies a view, could be very easily compared to Southwell’s picture, or mirror. As Southwell watched his youth go by, and was brought a message of death by his aged appearance, Spenser describes a life gone by, not by the way his skin has wrinkled, but by what he has seen come and go. In Spenser’s “Visions of Petrarch” the narrator is most likely Petrarch. As Petrarch spies out his window he watches his life go by. First a Hynde (Female Deer) enters the scene…
At my right hand a Hynde appear’d to mee,
So faire as mote the greatest God delite;
Two eager dogs did her persue in chace,
The Hynde is chased down by two dogs, until “vnder a rocke where she alas opprest, fell to the ground, and there vntimely dide”. Petrarch is made to wail at “so hard a destinie”. But alas Petrarch spots a ship, “made of Heben and white Yuorie”. This ship is beautiful, and the Hynde is quickly put out of mind,
But sudden storme did so tumoyle the aire,
And tumbled vp the sea, that she (alas)
Strake on a rock, that vnder water lay,
And perished past all recouerie.
First the Hynde, and now the ship; death and destruction have plagued Petrarch view from his window. Then “heauenly branches” appeared from a Lawrell Tree, a beautiful site to Petrarch indeed, filled with birds amongst the wood. But “when sudden flash of heauens fire out brast” lightening strikes and the tree, like the Hynde and the Ship is destroyed. Next a spring of water comes about, followed by a bird, but both suffer the same fate as the Hynde, ship and tree. The last straw for Petrarch, “so faire a Ladie did [he] spie”, but a “stinging serpent by the heele her caught” and brought death to her as well. Nothing in Spenser’s poem escapes death, it is the inevitable, that all things that come about and are beautiful will perish. With the loss of everything Petrarch wishes “[he] might this wearie life forgoe”. He has watched his life go by out the window. Everything that he enjoys, eventually dies, and with nothing left, he asks for death himself.

               John Donne speaks of death from a different view in “Death be not Proud”. As opposed to the other poets who see death as an inevitable threat, or consequence of life, Donne writes about death as a “slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men”. Death to Donne, is not the ruling factor of his life, but a tool used at the end to transcend him to the next stage. Donne speaks boldly about death with fear,
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
To the world, death may be a “mighty and dreadfull” threat, but to Donne this is not so. He even expresses sympathy towards “poore death” extending an invitation to kill him, for with “poison, warre, and sicknesse” death does dwell. Donne sees deaths as something comparable to a “poppie, or charmes” that make him sleep, and in the end, it is not Donne who dies, but death itself, as Donne wakes eternally in the afterlife. This piece is one of the most positive poems covering the topic of death that I have seen. Despite sharing the same topic as the preceding, Donne is ready to take death on head to head. He feels that whatever the outcome, death is the loser. In life, death is but a slave, and in death, death itself is the one that dies. The other poets treat death as a fear, a threat, or accept it as the inevitable. Southwell searched his thoughts for an escape from death, but concluded that none can slip by its grasp. Spenser saw everything in his life succumb to death or destruction, and eventually pleaded for the same fate, and Thomas Lord Vaux took on the idea that he was already dieing. In his joyless life, death had already come to greet him, and he was just waiting for the process to complete itself.

               Everyone is forced to deal with the idea of their mortality at some point or another. Death as a trend in poetry is not uncommon. Each of the Poets, Edmund Spenser, Robert Southwell, John Donne and Thomas Lord Vaux have written about how they see death. Their views do not all coincide. Death to Thomas Lord Vaux is a joyless life, in which death is begot unto a joyless life. Without pleasures and companionship, he is not living, but dieing. To John Donne, death is his tool, and not something he fears. He looks down upon death, and invites it onto himself, with the view that he can only win in a battle between himself and death. Robert Southwell gains an image of death from the aging image of himself, and fears death, looking for an escape, before he finally accepts it and asks to repent. Spenser watched death consume everything he had in his life, and when death has taken everything, Spenser asks that death consume him as well. Each poet faces the question of his own mortality, and each has their own handle on the situation, but death, in the end, touches them all.