The Personification and Criticism of Death in John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud." "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, lecture). In this sonnet, Donne personifies death in two ways, as rescuer and as punisher of even the most noble. Using these personifications, Donne turns the sting of death against death itself. Donne's personification of death begins in line two where he says that some people have called death "M