Morte, non essere fiera, anche se alcuni ti hanno chiamata

potente e spaventosa, poichè non lo sei;

perchè coloro che tu pensi di sconfiggere

non muoiono, povera Morte, e tu neanche mi puoi uccidere.

dal riposo e dal sonno, che non sono altro che tue immagini,

molto piacere; e poi da te molto di più si deve trarre,

e al più presto i nostri uomini migliori con te vengono,

riposo delle loro ossa, e liberazione dell'anima.

la tua arte schiava del destino, del caso, dei re e uomini disperati,

e vivi con veleno, guerra e malattia,

e il papavero o gli incantesimi possono farci dormire allo stesso modo,

e meglio del tuo colpo; perchè quindi ti ingrandisci?

passato un breve sonno, ci svegliamo eternamente

e la morte non ci sarà più ; Morte tu morirai.  

In sonnet 10 John Donne addresses himself directly to Death: he orders to Death not to be proud and after this strong sentence he adds his argumentation to support his    assurance. Death should not be proud because she isn't nor powerful nor terrible, because whom she thinks to eliminate die not and she can not also kill the speaking voice. Moreover the speaking voice affirms that you can take much pleasure from rest and sleep, Death's pictures.

A further argumentation is that Death slave to "fate, change, kings and desperate men" is and she lives with "poison, war and sickness".

Death should not swell herself because "poppy or charms" can make sleep as well and also better than her.

In the final couplet the speaking voice expresses his final opinion: mens after a short sleep will wake up eternally, so Death will not exist and she will die.

The structure is that of the English sonnet, organized into three quatrains and a final couplet.

The first element that catch the reader's attention is the use of the imperative form in line one, "Death be not proud" and the function of the other quatrains is to add reasons to this sentence. An element of innovation is that the poet addresses the poem directly to Death and that he applies reasoning and symbolism to a religious theme.

The alliteration of sounds [t] and [d] adds importance of what the speaking voice says.

In line 3 the pronoun "thou" is repeated twice to underline and to stick into the reader's mind the addresser of the sonnet.

The speaking voice seems almost to challenge Death, he is very secure of himself with his long list of argumentations.

There is the anaphora of the word "and" in lines 10,11 and 12 that emphasize the three argumentation present in these lines.

In line 13 there is the strong alliteration of sound [s] ("short sleep past"). the function is to underline the idea of the speaking voice that Death is just a shrot sleep and that after that life will continue; this idea is also connected to Christianity.