John Donne's Holy Sonnets: Sonnet 10

Once again, this sonnet is an example of an apostrophe, addressed this time to Death. The sonnet's speaker seems to be attempting to undermine Death's power, claiming that Death is not "Mighty and dreadful" and "canst... kill [him]" (Donne 2, 4). The Oxford English Dictionary defines death primarily as "the act or fact of dying; the end of life; the final cessation of the vital functions of an individual" (OED). I found this interesting in that while death is the END of life, death is not its own cause. Death doesn't really have power in the sense that it can PUT an end to life; it simply IS the end to life, but the actual power to take life lies elsewhere... in sickness, for instance, or old age, or a tragic accident, etcetera. In that sense, death really doesn't have the power to kill the speaker of this sonnet, or anyone, for that matter. This point is emphasized in the line that tells death "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men" (Donne 9).

Death also doesn't have the power to kill this speaker in another sense. Many people live their lives in fear of dying, and in this sense, death has already killed them by sucking the joy out of living and replacing it with constant fear and dread. In this sonnet, however, the speaker takes this power away from death, proclaming that death doesn't have power over him and that he refuses to be afraid of death. He claims his own life, determined to live it to the fullest without constantly dreading its end.

Death is also compared to sleep in the sonnet, and this coincides with the Oxford English Dictionary's fourth definition of sleep, "loss of sensation or vitality, state of unconsciousness, swoon" (OED). Death's power is greatly diminished when the speaker reveals that, like death, "poppy or charms can make us sleep as well / And better than [death's] stroke" (Donne 11-12). Indeed, in this sense, death is just another form of going to sleep, or of leaving the conscious world that we normally live in to retreat to another. Also, according to the sonnet, when "men with [death] do go, / Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery" (Donne 6-7). In other words, death has the power to physically remove us from the everyday conscious world, but in doing so, it also frees our souls and brings them to delivery. In this sense, rather than having power to entrap us, death sets us free.