Death be not proud because I could not stop for death - Essay Example

Donne treats death as a person in his poem and contradicts its power. He tells death not to be so proud as it is not as scary as it shows people it is. The writer tells death that it isn’t as powerful as it thinks it is and he contradicts its strength. The writer says that people don’t die when they meet death and neither will he himself. He compares death with ‘rest and sleep’ (Donne 11), the two things which are peaceful and not scary at all. He says that the good people know that death doesn’t bring pain rather pleasure.

The poem further goes on to explain death as a slave and the writer accuses death of being associated with elements such as poison, sickness, and war. He says that he could just have some drugs and fall asleep which is just the same as death would be. Death is considered to be just a short sleep that humans take and then the good ones wake up again to eternity (Donne 11). Since this happens, death is not eternal and death dies which means it has no power. The beginning of the poem focuses on the theme of death and the speaker addresses death as a proud person with an attitude problem who thinks himself as the most powerful.

The speaker says that death considers himself as someone who can boss around and overpower the people. It is a powerful force that scares people and people wish to escape it. He is treated as the king as everyone thinks it is here to do something terrible (Donne 11). However, the speaker says that he isn’t afraid and he knows that death isn’t as scary as it shows everyone. The speaker confronts death and tells him that he isn’t scared as he knows that people think wrong. The poem then forms further elements that death is not actually death and it dies with reference to the Christian tradition that everyone will rise for eternity.

This means that death is not real and it is not forever.