| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Death, Be Not Proud | | By John Donne (1572–1631) |
| | | DEATH, be not proud, though some have callèd 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 picture be, | 5 |
| Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow: | |
| And soonest our best men with thee do go, | |
| Rest of their bones, and souls’ delivery. | |
| Thou art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, | |
| And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, | 10 |
| 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. | | | | |
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