Death is Not the End Many have feared death ever since God created the world. Countless people have lived their lives with the haunting knowledge that at the end, they will die; losing everything they have worked for, and being buried forever to be forgotten in the ground. However, Christians have no need to fear death through Jesus’s death and resurrection. John Donne’s “Death be not proud,” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for death” show this. Both of these poems are about death, but they are not hopeless, or fearful. These two poems are very different, but both “Death be not Proud” and “Because I could not stop for death” talk as if “Death” is a person, have a fearless tone, and end saying something about eternal life. …show more content…
“Death” is a person, though his nature seems different in both poems. Donne’s poem talks right to Death, and is defiant, as if Donne is standing up to bully who thinks he is stronger than everyone else. Dickinson, though, takes quite a different view. In her poem, written as if telling someone a story, she says, “Death kindly stopped for me.” Here, Death has become a gentleman, kind and courteous, taking the poet on a carriage ride through the country side. And yet, both are “Death.” Another thing both these poems have in common is the tone. Neither poem is fearful or hopeless, although Dickinson and Donne seem to have different views again. Emily Dickinson accepts death’s offer for a carriage ride, and has eerie allusions to the customs of courting or getting married in those days, although still, the tone is fearless. In Donne’s poem, he stands up to death, daring it to fight back, teasing it almost, for he knows it cannot hurt him. However, though Emily Dickinson calmly allows Death in, and John Donne is standing against it, neither are fearful, for they know that death is not the