The fixation is on the last line of the poem:

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

The assertion is that Donne did not intend the use of a semicolon, and converting it to a comma significantly alters the meaning, profoundly uplifting the aura of spirituality.

The play:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wit_(play)

The poem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Be_Not_Proud

Discussion:

https://lavelleporter.com/2015/02/13/readingwit/

"Nothing but a breath—a comma—separates life from life everlasting. It is very simple really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something to act out on a stage, with exclamation points. It’s a comma, a pause."

Then comments:

> I think that “beat” and “borne” lack visual concreteness. Shouldn’t it be “paddle”? “Paddle” sounds a little silly, but that’s the metaphor Fitzgerald is using. (Those boats must be canoes, not steamboats. A steamboat wouldn’t care that much about a current.)

A reminder of the obscurity of Fitzgerald's analogy, which is specific to the technology of sailing: A "beat" is a course that will take the boat upwind -- always a challenge. And if the current of the water is pointed downwind, perhaps impossible.

Somehow none of the New Yorker editors caught this either.

Dang, says tomhow, is the better moderator.

That was not on my top-5 list of things that may be in that article.