"Death, be not proud"

"Death, be not proud"
by John Donne

This poem personifies death and makes it seem less powerful and frightening.  Death does not kill everyone it thinks it does and is a "slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men," and dwells "with poison, war, and sickness" (Donne, 971).  The speaker puts death down a belittles it.  He puts himself above death by saying that death cannot kill him.  The speaker may go to sleep, but he will always wake up.  The speaker directly addresses death and reprimands it- telling death to not be too proud or self-confident because it hasn't accomplished much.  The speaker has strong faith and therefore is not afraid of death.
My favorite line is the last one where it says, "and death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die" (Donne, 972).  The speaker's faith is so strong that he believes that Christ will completely destroy death and everyone will have eternal life.  Though God is not directly mentioned in the poem, it is a good assumption that it is God that the speaker is referring too because He is the only one in which a person can place complete faith that death will be destroyed.