Death Be Not Proud is holy poem written by John Donne in which he addresses death. Normally death is considered to be ‘mighty and dreadful’ but actually it is neither ‘mighty’ nor ‘dreadful’. Therefore, it should not be proud of itself.
According to Donne to those whom death is supposed to kill are not killed in reality and they sleep a long and a peaceful sleep. He says that rest and sleep resemble death. Comfort and pleasure result from sleep, so death is a result of comfort and pleasure indirectly. This is the reason why righteous people die early. Death frees the souls from the prison of human bodies and gives the bodies a permanent rest. Donne doesn’t consider death as dreadful as it provides rest to the body and brings peace and quietness.
Death is not even mighty like a king but it is like wretched slave. Death is a slave as it obeys the command of accidents, misfortunes, murders, poisons, fate, chance, old age etc. Death cannot be considered as glorious because it has miserable companies like old age, sickness and many more. Donne says that intoxicants, drugs and many such things have properties which can bring better and painless sleep to a human body.
Death has no reason to be proud of as it can make us sleep only for a short while in the grave. after some time we will awake in the other world and live there eternally. Then death will have no power upon us. Thus, Donne says that death does not kill us, but dies in itself.