Desperate (Apostrophe)

"though some have called thee/ mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;"

"Death, be not proud" is essentially a long apostrophe to unhuman element of life (yeah, I realize that's ironic, because it's death). The part of this poem that I had to read a few times to figure out was the tone or attitude of the speaker. I came to the conclusion that the speaker was in fact terrified of death, and was merely trying to convince himself through his conversation with death that death need not be feared. I got this tone from all the reasons the speaker uses to try and convince death to restrain it's pride.

"And soonest our best men with thee do go" is one of the first lines trying to dissuade death from its pride. I found this slightly contradictory, because death can claim even the best of men whether they are ready or not. Another line, "And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell" is another line that clearly give death power instead of detracting from it. If death can claim its victims in so many ways, why does the speaker think it should not be proud? The only real argument the speaker has against death is the eternal life that he claims to believe in in this line: "One short sleep passed, we wake eternally,". Yet, even this is not proof, because the speaker has no proof of the afterlife, only an assumption.

All these lines and claims reveal the true, shaky, uncertain, desperate, and ultimately frightened feelings of the speaker.