“ Moved by the cunning of a thousand clowns
Dressed paper-wise, with blatant rounded masks,
That take their multi-coloured caravans
From place to place, and act and leap and sing,
Catching the spinning hoops when cymbals clash.
And one is dressed as Fate, and one as Death”
https://ia800607.us.archive.org/8/items/wheels-thefirstcycle_1706_librivox/wheels1_02_various.mp3
So here Death is Part of a circus troupe, a clown dressed paper wise.
(The poem is public domain)