In this poetry, the speaker insults Death as a personified foe. Most people fear this enemy, yet in this sonnet, the speaker effectively reprimands him. The speaker makes it clear that he is not afraid of death and does not believe that death should be so confident in himself. The readers are given an ironic sense of comfort by the confident tone of “Death, be not Proud” and Death’s straight confrontation since it implies that Death is not at all anything to be afraid of but that Death will ultimately be defeated by something even greater.