MB UNIUD

Sonnet 10 – Exercises

Exercise n. 1

1. The poem addresses to death.
2. The poet tells death not to be proud. The two lines reduce the death’s importance.
3. The final statement says death will not exist forever. It expresses a deep belief in Christian religion and eternal life.

Exercise n. 2

a)

1. g) death has not control over events and people (lines 1-3)
2. c) death falsely believes that it can kill people (lines 3-4)
3. f) death is a pleasurable experience, not a painful one (lines 6-7)
4. a) the best of human kind desire death (lines 7-8)
5. e) death has repulsive companions (lines 9-10)
6. b) sleeping potions can make people sleep better than death (lines 11-12)
7. d) christians are promised eternal life (13-14)

b) I think they are number 1, 3, 4 and 6.

Exercise n. 3

1. Rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBC DEED FG; the structure is that of the English sonnet.
2. John Donne uses a dislocated syntax along all the poem.

Answer the questions below without looking back at the two poems.

1. The speaking voice is a man speaking to his lover.
2. The woman cries because her lover is going to leave her.
3. The word rhyming with “skill” is “will” and the term “wicked” refers to the block of the man’s will against the woman’s one.
4. The man fears the woman’s judgement. Fears can vanish taking consciousness of problems.
5. The picture is only imagined; the poet imagines it lying in his lover’s heart.
6. People won’t die.
7. The best men go with Death.
8. After that there is the resurrection.