Fear. Everything we want is on the other side of fear. 997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsOUr2NTVI
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. 997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAvl1egZxrU
--Ayame
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtJBgcWqaS
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BzvSQSXrQ
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CgXwyxL9t
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Ss5uzNT6s
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGkLKnwkU6T
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ebObtn819
And soonest our best men with thee do go,997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CagtAbUKB
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RwObOmUcS
Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwDsnwkcbd
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUf46Sb90Q7
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrmkoXS5VW
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZ6UhxFLEu
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,997Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpZwBkHSxO
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. -- John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10
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