Holy Sonnet - Sonnet X by John Donne

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.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] 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.
Thou art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke ; why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die.

Morte, non essere fiera, sebbene alcuni ti abbiano chiamata
potente e terribile, perché tu non lo sei;
poiché coloro che tu pensi di sconfiggere,
non muoiono, povera morte, ne tu mi puoi uccidere.
Dal riposo e dal sonno, che non sono altro che tue immagini,
(viene tratto) molto piacere, quindi da te un piacere molto maggiore si deve trarre,
e più in fretta i nostri miglior uomini se ne vanno con te,
riposo per le loro ossa e liberazione dell'anima.
Tu sei schiava del destino, del caso, dei re, e degli uomini disperati,
e convivi con il veleno, la guerra e la malattia,
e il papavero o gli incantesimi ci fanno dormire altrettanto
e meglio del tuo colpo; allora perché ti gonfi?
Dopo un breve sonno, ci svegliamo per l'eternità,
e la morte non esisterà più; Morte, tu morirai.

Analysis

The sonnet X is about the death, that believes to be strong and terrifying, but it is not so.

The death has not control over events and people but it is a pleasurable experience, not a painful one, and the best of human kind desire death. Therefore death falsely believes that it can kill people. In the final couplet Christians are promised eternal life.

The sonnet is divided into four parts:

three quatrains, that present three different aspects of the same problem, that is the death, and a final couplet that provides the solution to the problem giving eternal life.

The rhyme scheme is abbaabbacddcee even though eternally and die have not the same sound because we pronounce them differently than people who lived in 1600.