In this two line ¡° One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die.¡± Donne talks about awaking eternally and Death will be forever destroyed. Donne believes we will lives in heaven forever in eternal life even after Death takes away our physical form. As a result, Death is powerless and nothing to afraid of. Then, death will cease to exist, and will die.
Unlike Donne, Shakespeare's sonnet 55, he sees death as something that can be conquering and the immortality of his poem. From the poem, we can see the confidence from the poet as he claims to have the power to keep his memory alive even after death. Shakespeare states in line 5 "wasteful war" which implies that nothing can destroy his work. He says "Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn/The living record of your memory." (line 6) He believes all the memories written on this poem is something that death can never take it away from him, because it is no longer in the physical form and survived through war. Shakespeare values things he cares about; that his memories