Death be not proud By John Donne , Short summary and analysis

 Death be not proud 

By John Donne 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Short summary and analysis 

* In this poem the speaker directly addresses a personified death, telling it not to be arrogant just because some people find death scary and intimidating but according to the poet - death is neither of these things because people don’t really die when death comes to them; nor will the speaker truly die when death arrives for him.

* In the poem the poet compares death to rest and sleep—which are like images of death—the speaker anticipates death to be even more pleasurable than these activities.

* Furthermore, it’s often the best people who go with death—which represents nothing more than the resting of the body and the arrival of the soul in the afterlife.

*According to poet, death is fully controlled by fate and luck, and often administered by rulers or people acting desperately. 

*The speaker points out that death is also associated with poison, war, and illness. Drugs and magic spells are more effective than death when it comes to rest.

*Death is nothing but a mere sleep in between people’s earthly lives and the eternal afterlife, in which death can visit them no more. It is instead death—or a certain idea of death as something to be scared of—that is going to die.

*With these lines, the speaker compares death to “rest and sleep” and even uses the word “pleasure” to describe how one should feel about death.

*The poet thinks that death is  just as a restful night of sleep which  brings pleasure, so should death. 

* The speaker implies that sleep is simply a small glimpse of Death. Thus, there is nothing to fear in death, for death will bring something like a pleasurable sleep.

Themes 

* The Powerlessness of Death

Personifying "Death" as a vain, prideful figure, the speaker tries to deflate death's arrogance by declaring that death is really nothing more than a rest. 

* Fearlessness of death 

Death, in the poem, is a boastful figure that proudly trades on its reputation as “mighty and dreadful.” Yet the speaker sees death as petty and weak and confronts it directly, insisting that death can’t “kill” anyone, for that matter.