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The Full Text of “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud”
1Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
2Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
3For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
4Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
5From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
6Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
7And soonest our best men with thee do go,
8Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
9Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
10And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
11And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
12And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
13One short sleep past, we wake eternally
14And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Introduction
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“Holy Sonnet 10,” often referred to by its opening line (“Death, be not proud”), was written by the English poet and Christian cleric John Donne in 1609 and first published in 1633. The poem is a direct address to death, arguing that it is powerless because it acts merely as a “short sleep” between earthly living and the eternal afterlife—in essence, death is nothing to fear. The sonnet is written mostly in iambic pentameter and is part of a series known as Donne's "Holy Sonnets"(or “Divine Meditations”/ “Divine Sonnets”). In keeping with these other poems, “Holy Sonnet 10” is a devotional lyric that looks at life’s biggest questions in the context of Donne’s religious beliefs.
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Summary
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The speaker directly addresses a personified death, telling it not to be arrogant just because some people find death scary and intimidating. In fact, death is neither of these things because people don’t really die when death—whom the speaker pities—comes to them; nor will the speaker truly die when death arrives for him.
Comparing death to rest and sleep—which are like images of death—the speaker anticipates death to be even more pleasurable than these activities. Furthermore, it’s often the best people who go with death—which represents nothing more than the resting of the body and the arrival of the soul in the afterlife.
Death is fully controlled by fate and luck, and often administered by rulers or people acting desperately. The speaker points out that death is also associated with poison, war, and illness. Drugs and magic spells are more effective than death when it comes to rest. With all this in mind, what possible reason could death have for being so puffed up with pride?
Death is nothing but a mere sleep in between people’s earthly lives and the eternal afterlife, in which death can visit them no more. It is instead death—or a certain idea of death as something to be scared of—that is going to die.
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Themes
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The Powerlessness of Death
In this sonnet, often referred to by its first line or as “Holy Sonnet 10,” the speaker argues that death doesn't have the final say over human beings. Personifying "Death" as a vain, prideful figure, the speaker tries to deflate death's arrogance by declaring that death is really nothing more than a rest. Following this rest comes the afterlife, which represents humanity's ultimate triumph over death.
Death, in the poem, is a boastful figure that proudly trades on its reputation as “mighty and dreadful.” Yet the speaker sees death as petty and weak and confronts it directly, insisting that death can’t “kill” him—or anyone, for that matter.
That’s because death isn’t the frightening end that people think it is. Really, the speaker argues, death is just like a more intense version of “sleep.” People generally feel good after getting some rest, the speaker reasons, so it follows that they’ll feel even more “pleasure” after dying. Death is simply a welcome reprieve for people's “bones,” their physical selves, while their souls move on to the afterlife.
The speaker deflates death’s ego further by calling it a “slave” to earthly things. Death, in the speaker’s estimation, isn’t the master of anything; it’s beholden to “fate, chance, kings, and desperate men” and hangs out with lowly, despicable things like “poison, war, and sickness.” Even as a form of rest, the speaker continues, death isn’t all that impressive: “poppy” (opiate drugs) and “charms” (magic and spells) are far better sleep aids!
As such, death has no reason to puff out its chest (to “swell” with pride). As nothing more than a restful passage between life on earth and in heaven, death is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, the speaker dramatically concludes, the only thing that “die[s]” in the end is death itself: in waking “eternally” in heaven, people overcome death’s supposed finality.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud”
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Lines 1-4
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.As with many of Donne's poems, "Death, be not proud" starts boldly. The speaker addresses "Death" itself, an example of apostrophe.
The speaker personifies death as a figure with an inflated sense of self-importance that trades on its reputation as something fearsome and final. Yet "thou art not so," the speaker continues: death is neither "mighty" nor "dreadful," and the speaker will spend the rest of the poem explaining why.
For one thing, death wrongly thinks that it can "overthrow" life—that is, "kill" people, even though nobody ever really dies. The speaker even pities death, calling it "poor Death," for its foolish belief that it can end human existence.
The enjambment between lines 3 and 4 adds urgency to the speaker's argument:
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.That "overthrow" is immediately undermined, as the poem doesn't grant any space for a pause. This, in turn, reflects the speaker's belief that death isn't any sort of final end.
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Lines 5-8
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Unlock all 225 words of this analysis of Lines 5-8 of “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
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Lines 9-10
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, -
Lines 11-12
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Symbols
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Sleep
As part of the argument against the power of death, the speaker repeatedly refers to sleep and rest. These activities symbolize the impermanent, even restorative nature of death.
When someone is asleep they are unconscious and thereby separated from their interactions with the world and other people (just as they will be in death). But sleep is also a kind of restorative retreat—good for the mind and body—that everybody needs. It follows that if death is a kind of sleep, it is nothing to be feared; sleep is a good thing. In fact, if death is a kind of “super-sleep” it is even something to be looked forward to.
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
This poem is not just an argument against death but an argument with death. To make this argument work, the speaker uses apostrophe throughout the entire poem, directly addressing death as if it were a person. Essentially, the speaker is trying to deflate the sense of death’s power by tackling it head-on. The speaker isn't afraid to confront, and, indeed, antagonize, death.
Apostrophe is also closely linked with personification. The speaker personifies death as a prideful, misguided individual who has got the completely wrong idea about their role in the lives of humankind. Personification and apostrophe create a clear enemy in the poem, a distinct figure against which the speaker can level his arguments.
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Alliteration
Unlock all 141 words of this analysis of Alliteration in “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
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Anaphora
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Enjambment
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Paradox
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Personification
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Thee
- Thou
- Art
- Think'st
- Dost
- Canst
- Thy
- Pictures
- Bones
- Poppy
- Charms
- Stroke
- Swell'st
Thee-
An archaic form of "you."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud”
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Form
"Death, not be proud" is a sonnet. It has two main sections: the octave and the sestet. This makes it look most like a Petrarchan sonnet. Based on its rhyme scheme, however, it can also be broken into three quatrains and a concluding couplet—which is more akin to the English sonnet.
Sonnets lend themselves well to arguments: usually, the octave presents an argument or point to which the sestet then responds. The moment this response begins is called the poem's turn, or volta. The turn in this poem is subtle: the speaker simply intensifies the argument against death's power, declaring that it's a "slave" to random chance and human whims.
The rhyme scheme shifts in line 9, signaling this turn: whereas lines 1-8 followed the scheme ABBA ABBA, line 9 introduces a new rhyme sound. The pattern remains the same—CDDC—but the sounds are new.
Donne then ends the poem with a couplet, adding a burst of lyrical intensity (again, couplets are usually seen in English sonnets). This final couplet allows for a further shift in the poem, this time to state, as clearly as possible, the reason why death is powerless: the eternal afterlife.
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Meter
The meter in "death, be not proud" is iambic pentameter. Modern readers might struggle to hear the iambic pentameter clearly because of changes in the way certain words are pronounced. For example, "called" in Donne's era would have been said with 2 syllables: "call-ed." Line 5 gives an example of perfect iambic pentameter:
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
The poem uses its steady meter to reinforce the argument that death is powerless.
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Rhyme Scheme
The rhyme scheme of the first 8 lines (the octave) is:
ABBAABBA
This is the typical scheme found in Petrarchan sonnets.
But the sestet diverges from the Petrarchan set-up. It rhymes:
CDDCEE
In terms of rhyme, then, the poem can be divided into three quatrains (two of which form the octet) and an ending couplet. The development towards the couplet at the end lends force to the conclusion, which is making the bold claim that Death itself will die (because of the afterlife).
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Speaker
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The speaker in "death, be not proud" is anonymous, though critics often take the Holy Sonnets to be an expression of John Donne's own struggles with his Christian faith (particularly as Donne had converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism a few years prior). However, nothing in the poem definitively proves Donne to be the speaker.
In fact, as the poem is essentially a logical battle with death, it's reasonable to think of the speaker as representing humanity itself. Specifically, the poem's speaker chastises death from a standpoint of certainty—they believe in the eternal afterlife, and for them, this sole fact undoes everything that is usually terrifying or intimidating about the thought of death.
The speaker talks widely about the world, and particularly humankind's role in it as opposed to death's. This supports the idea that the speaker positions themselves as a kind of defender of humanity, taking on death through a series of unfolding logical propositions. But, of course, it's up to the reader to decide if the speaker's standpoint is convincing.
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“Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Setting
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The setting of "Death, be not proud" is non-specific. In general, the poem is set on earth (as opposed to heaven). It is a poem that makes its argument in broad strokes, taking a look at death's role on earth and arguing against the fear of dying.
That said, there are one or two moments that seem to tie the poem to the 17th century and to Europe (or possibly England) more specifically. The first 8 lines give little away in terms of setting, but lines 9-11 provide some interesting clues. Line 9 accuses death of being "slave" to "kings," referencing the role of monarchs in the doling out of death among subjects. War was not uncommon at the time of the poem's writing in 1610, which was not long after the end of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604). This conflict, as with many others, was ultimately presided over by monarchs. Likewise, the religious turmoil in Europe was also closely linked with its monarchies.
In line 11, "poppy" links the poem to 17th-century Europe as well. The word is a euphemism for opium, a relatively popular drug in England at the time.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud”
Literary Context
John Donne is generally grouped together with Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, and others as part of the "Metaphysical" Poets, though in truth he is a singular talent in the English canon. This poem comes from the "Holy Sonnet" series, a group of Donne's poems that mostly deals with issues of faith, mortality, and religious anxiety. Of those poems, this is perhaps the most sure-footed; others present more of a challenge to God, and worry about man's relationship to his maker. But this was not always Donne's subject—as a younger man, Donne wrote marvelously constructed and extremely witty poems that tended to be more interested in love and sex than God and penance. The early poems—in fact, all of Donne's poems—were not published widely during his lifetime, but circulated in small number amongst an exclusive group of people in the know.
The "metaphysical" poets was a description coined by the critic Samuel Johnson, who saw in Donne and his contemporaries a reliance on conceit—which is, in essence, an ingenious and sustained metaphor—and an emphasis on the spoken quality of their work. In fact, Donne was often criticized by his contemporaries for not being stricter with his meter and form. Ben Jonson quipped that Donne deserved "hanging ... for not keeping accents."
Now, Donne is considered one of the foremost poets in the English language. Those qualities that made him seem inferior to some of his fellow poets and critics—his linguistic dexterity and his taste for the daringly imaginative—are those that make him endure so strongly. He remains widely influential, and often quoted (the 1999 play Wit, for example, makes frequent reference to this particular poem). Bizarrely, J. Robert Oppenheimer named the first atomic test site "Trinity" in reference to Donne's Sonnet 14—which famously begins, "Batter my heart, three-person'd God."
Historical Context
This poem was written in 17th-century England, a time of considerable religious turmoil and the expansion of British reach across the globe. Donne was a Catholic, born during a time of great anti-Catholic sentiment. In 1593, Donne's brother, Henry, was imprisoned for his Catholicism and died soon after. Critics disagree as to the exact reasoning behind Donne's decision, but he subsequently changed his religious allegiance by converting to Anglicanism. Later, he became a cleric, delivering passionate sermons in Saint Paul's—including one in which the phrase "no man is an island" originates.
The tension between the two different forms of Christianity played on Donne's conscience, and the Holy Sonnets portray an individual desperate for confirmation that they have chosen the right faith, and that in turn they will be granted access to the afterlife.
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More “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud” Resources
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External Resources
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A Clip from Wit — A clip from the film version of Wit, a play by Margaret Edson. The two lead characters discuss the punctuation of Donne's sonnet.
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A Reading by John Gielgud — A reading by the influential actor and theater director, John Gielgud.
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Britten's "Death, be not proud" — English composer Benjamin Britten set a number of Donne's "Holy Sonnets" to music. Here is a performance of "Death, be not proud."
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The Holy Sonnets — A link to the entire "Holy Sonnets" series (based on the Westmoreland manuscript).
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LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne
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