Moment Poetry Analysis

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John Donne’s poem “Holy Sonnet X” speaks of death as an actual being, and of dying as the action that death tries to cause. The speaker believes that dying is merely an escape from death, and that consequentially, death is powerless and does not need to be feared. The speaker views death not as a being with power to take the lives of whomever he chooses, but instead as a creature who is subject to the wills and actions of men -- a view which is reflected by the tone he creates while he speaks to death. He begins the poem by commanding death to “be not proud,” a statement which goes against the widespread belief that death is “mighty and dreadful,” and affirms the speaker’s opinion that death is not something that needs to be feared. He does not speak to death as he would to someone greater than him or even equal to him, but he speaks to it as he would to someone below him. He does not ask death not to be proud, he commands death to not be proud. In doing this, the speaker asserts himself above death and beyond its reach. Furthermore, he refers to death as being subject to “fa...

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