Isn't everyone a little afraid of death? Maybe some are just a little uncertain about death and life after death, but a poet named John Donne was not. John Donne was born in London in 1572 and wrote many poems during his lifetime. In the final few years of his life Donne became very obsessed with death and wrote many poems on it. He even preached his own funeral sermon a few weeks before his death in a work he titled "Death's Duel."Here is one of his famous poems:


This is a statue they have of him in London


Death Be Not Proud

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.