Since Donne devoutly believed in the expectation of the Christian Resurrection, his poem personifies death as an adversary swollen with false pride and unworthy of being called "mighty and dreadful." This poem is one of his "Holy Sonnets," in which Donne sees Death as mere adversary and God as vanquisher. In "Death be not proud" the poet accuses death of being little more than a slave bossed around by "fate, chance, kings and desperate men"—a craven thing that keeps bad company, such as "poison, war, and sickness." Finally Donne taunts death with a paradox: "death, thou shalt die.