"Death, be not proud"
John Donne
A main type of figurative language used in this poem is personification. Throughout the poem the speaker talks to death as if death was something tangible or human. The speaker tells death that he is not powerful or scary. The speaker compares death to sleep when saying, "And poppy charms can make us sleep as well, and better than thy stroke" (Donne, 972). The speaker basically is saying that though many people fear death there is no reason to be afraid to die. Death is just a short rest before we wake for eternity. This poem relates to the Christian belief that once we die in this life, we wake eternally with God. Furthermore, when we are with God, there will be no more death.
Why should death not be proud? Not only is death not all powerful, but death hangs out with things such as poison, war, and sickness, and he is a slave, or does not act on his own accord. The main point behind this poem is that death is not truly scary, and there is nothing to fear about death.
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