John Donne's Sonnet 6
...ion or other freedoms they sought after. Next, Donne uses another metaphor, this time a race, to describe life. “Idly yet quickly run,” (l.3), a paradox, is perhaps suggesting two different ideas. “…Quickly run” seems to suggest he rushed through life and it is coming to an end sooner than he had imagined. Yet “idly” suggests just the opposite. That he was perhaps idle in his life and “this last pace” (l.3) came before he thought about enjoying the “race”. Two more metaphors Donne uses, one using distance and the other time, again refer to death. “My span’s last inch,” (l.4), whether or not the arm is long, and arm span has many inches but in that very last inch, perhaps at the very tip of the fingers is like the very tip of life, right before death. “My minute’s latest point;” (l.4), not the last second but the very last point like the last breath taken before consumed by death. These first four lines are used to introduce Donne’s idea of death but the next four lines speak of death and what happens when one dies. Beginning line 5, “And gluttonous death…” is another paradox. It seems as if Donne wanted to describe death as being ravenous. The word “gluttonous” makes one think of death as being one, which consumes the dead. However, death is not alive and cannot consume anything. Donne goes on to say “death will instantly unjoint/ My body and soul,” (l.5-6), painting a picture in the reader’s mind of something being ripped apart which is exactly what Donne had intended to do. He wanted the reader to understand that the body and soul becomes two after death. “I shall sleep a space;” (l.6) refers to his body which will “sleep” once consumed by death. “But my ever-waking part” (l.7) is his soul, which will never die, even after death. Donne then talks about “that face” which is referring to the face of God. He fears the time he “shall see that face” (l.7) which relates to judgment day when he sees God face-to-face. In line 5, he used the word “unjoint,” a verb, referring to the separation of the body and soul after death. Now, in line 8, he uses the word “joint” as a noun when he describes this fear of judgment day as it “shakes [his] every joint.” This metaphor, describing his fear, is effective because it gives the reader the degree of his fear. Although these last four lines illustrate what happens after death, these next four will describe what happens after the body and soul “unjoint.” Donne says his soul goes to heaven, “her first seat,” (l.9), a personification of his soul, “takes flight,” (l.9). In questioning the significance of personifying his soul, looking ahead to where he says, “earth-born body in the earth shall dwell,” (l.10), one will notice that his body is not personified, but buried in the earth. Perhaps his...