Death, be not proud Questions

1. Death isn't proud and death is rest and sleep
2. In line five the speaker compares Death to rest and sleep, two very nonthreatening things. "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men," (Line 9) The speaker calls death a slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. When you are supposed to be this macho, scary guy, you don't want to be compared to a slave to anyone. "And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;" (Line 10) The speaker tells death that people die because of these reasons, the 'people' that deaths hangs out with, not Death himself. 
1. The speaker's main reasons are consistent because he continuously tells Death that he isn't afraid of him. "Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so" (Line 2)
3. I think the speaker is a man of assured faith that death is not to be feared. His faith in God is what gives him the strength to stand up to death because he knows that death is just like a little nap and he will wake up in the presence of the eternal father. "One short sleep passed, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." (Lines 13-14)
4. Death, be not proud is a Patrarchan sonnet, therefore it is closer to the Italian sonnet. Donne does play around with the form a little. The traditional Patrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme that goes ABBAABBA CDCDCD. The last six lines in Donne's poem however, seem to follow the rhyme scheme of CDDCAA. Though for the last words of the last two lines to rhyme, you would have to pronounce eternally as eternal-lie. Since no one is entirely sure what Renaissance English sounds like, it is quite possible that they did pronounce words like that. The last six lines could also follow the rhyme arrangement CDDC AE. With the volta ending in AE the rhyming of A relates it back to the beginning of the poem. While the E rhyme gives the poem a whole new idea, the turn. In traditional Italian sonnets, the turn happens in line 9. In Death, be not proud, the turn occurs in middle of the last line. "Death, thou shalt die." In the entire poem, the speaker is basically trash talking Death, calling him names and telling Death that he isn't afraid of him. In this last line he tells Death that he will die, it's not suggested, Death will die.