Death, be not proud

Death, be not proud
John Donne

The author has personified death as someone he his talking to. This is evident in the title, for one (since it's not all capitalized), and he addresses Death as a person or being. He proclaims that death kills people, but that is his job and he shouldn't be ashamed of it. However, Death shouldn't feel as though he is invincible; he shouldn't feel as though he himself can never die. The author recounts all the ways people die in the world. He says how war and sickness harm people, and then luck and medicine heal people, yet Death still comes inevitably. But then the author says how after "One short sleep passed, we wake eternally" (Donne 972). The short sleep is Death finally coming to take a person from life. However, because death comes, eternal life quickly follows the passing of an individual. It is because of this that Death dies himself. Eternal life goes against the pain and misery that dying brings, and therefore kills the idea of Death. The author does not fear Death and his 100% success rate, because in the end Death always fails.