How is death treated in John Donne's divine poems?

Death is a common image in Donne's poetry. However, for Donne death is not so much a somber subject producing gloomy thoughts, but a transition moment--often a climax--denoting a change of state. In "The Flea," for example, the woman's killing of the flea ostensibly ruins his argument for their physical intimacy, but from this death he is able to form a positive proof that their union would not have any greater effect than the loss of the blood she has just obliterated. In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," Donne refers to his impending departure and absence from his wife as a form of death, suggesting that his separation from her is a form of emotional obliteration (although he states that the physical distance cannot alter their ubiquitous love).

Holy Sonnet 10, commonly referred to as "Death Be Not Proud," is perhaps Donne's most blatant statement of his philosophy of life and death. Here, a personified Death cannot boast in its power, for death merely transitions the soul from a physical state to a spiritual one. Ultimately, all people will reach their metaphysical state, and thus, "Death, Thou shalt die."