Death, be not proud

This poem has a pretty nice little message to it. The speaker speaks directly to death (apostrophe!!) and tells it that he isn't scared of him. He is telling the reader not to be afraid of death, and not to let it control people's lives. It is much better to understand that it is inevitable, and just let it happen. I think that it is a pretty good message. If people let death rule their lives, they will forget about life itself. They just need to focus on what they can control and understand that it will happen eventually.
It seems to me that sticking it to death is a pretty common message in poetry. I feel like I have blogged about that message before. I guess if a poet is going to write about death, they might as well not be sad when they do.