Fear. Everything we want is on the other side of fear. 958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkbfmWVxO6g
Simplistically speaking, all you have to do is get over your fears to do what you want. We all know it’s not that simple, though.
Fear is a complex emotion. What we feel is a wall between us and whatever we are afraid of. That wall is the separation of stability and security, and the other side being unknowable and dreadful.
To overcome is to confront. We’d have to get over that “wall” and challenge the thing that scares us the most.
John Donne’s Death, Be Not Proud is a perfect example of this. The way I perceive it, John is conquering his fear by condescendingly taking hold of it only to smash it down into what he feels as inferior. Death is what he is humanizing in order to make it seem less frightening. He levels the playing field with Death so that it will be easier to face.
To John Donne, Death will die because in his world, Death does not exist. Donne believes that there is no “real” Death. He will go to Heaven where Death does not exist, therefore, making Death out to be nothing more than a temporary sleep.
This is what we should do with all of our fears. Donne has portrayed Death as a petty fellow who is arrogant in thinking he is immortal, that he is something to be feared. But, Donne expresses that Death is not to be afraid of, that he is only to be pitted because of what he truly is: a slave to fate.
In a way, we are slaves to our fears. We let the fear control us.
But, in reality, there is no fear. Fear is only what we make it. It’s only scary because we believe it to be.
Most of the time, though, once faced, fear is nothing but a trick of the mind to be overcame. 958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxHPLmXK7g
--Ayame
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm3JuOWSLeI
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnIEePgT5x
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVPEHXkgEDp
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzARg6FjNIe
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxX5fhLtaHP
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsywZtFKK37
And soonest our best men with thee do go,958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5m93Y3YRVR
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnQwfm1YXra
Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4Qvb9QnkU
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNZ4qA0XKK
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR10iA30sk5
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIKuWbIrWT
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,958Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuN6nwD2B7q
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. -- John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10
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