Death, Be Not Proud
John Donne p. 972
The speaker in the poem seems to have a mindset that death is not the end, and that death does not win. Though death thinks it has the last say, the last word in a person's life, it is not the end. The speaker addresses death directly, saying, "death, thou shalt die", because death is only a short sleep before arising in eternity (Donne, 972). I find it both fascinating and a relief that death is described only as a vessel to eternity, rather than the means by why the soul is going there. It is "fate, kings, desperate men... poison, war and sickness" that kills, and death is merely a slave, stricken with the responsibility of transporting souls to presumably heaven. I also find that the speaker mocks death. Instead of "mighty and dreadful", death is a "poppy or charm", a lighthearted interpretation of it's seemingly important job.
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