Death, Be Not Proud -Poem #1

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art 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.

Death, be not proud by John Donne talks about soldiers and the war. This reminded me of Social Science, where we've been learning about the Vietnam war; where as the country and people had stopped supporting the war. People on the outside look at war as being heroic, masculine, when they don't know what really goes on inside the fighting zone. But the first line "death, be not proud, though some have called thee." Outsiders look at these veterans as being proud to be fighting for our country but should they be? How is death, which is a 50/50 chance of coming out of the war, something that we don't discuss or look upon? Only if being alive. From the inside, they're not proud for what they are doing which is what the speaker is saying. That's what society has made them look like, if you fight for our country you're doing something right for someone other then yourself. The ending is what caught my eye, how can death really die? Maybe discussing that after everything they've been through that the war is over. "Short sleep past, we wake eternally" is giving us that shift that after everything they've discussed in the earlier stanzas that they can enjoy life now, go on to their lives before. They have done their duty and can now fulfill something that they want to do. But is it really over? The discussion here is that these soldiers will never be how they were before when they've been through "poison, war and sickness dwell". On the outside they are looked at as proud but on the inside they are grateful to be done.