Fear. Everything we want is on the other side of fear. 952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LVEnyHFO4
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. 952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJckciNaD1
--Ayame
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcehA4nzRyS
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGXpWgCRBGu
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdYfzYrXVlW
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYf4anPWBDa
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGkb5Sfczcm
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIR9X7dumj
And soonest our best men with thee do go,952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKuOxblMSK4
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQryYKgLgkf
Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIC8MD3jA2r
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6WH6Ni5v0Y
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFweo5jBLyP
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOeO8pMh9ZL
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,952Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrXOIYfx2OH
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. -- John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10
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