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The Personification and Criticism of Death in John Donne's "Death Be Not "No poem of John Donne's is more widely read or more directly associated with Donne than the tenth of the Holy Sonnets, 'Death, be not proud.'" (Dr. Gerald McDaniel, lectu ....

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... he deflates Death in the opening salvo. He discounts the power of death as a mere fiction" (Dr. Gerald McDaniel, lecture). Now that the image of his foe, death, has been created, Donne denounces the power and fear associated with death, "for thou art not so. / For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow/ Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me" (ll 2-4), Donne defies death's power. He is so bold as to mock death, calling it "poor death" (l 4), giving death the sense and personification of being deficient in that it cannot kill Donne. In the second quatrain, Donne continues his critique of death. He questions death th ...