Holy Sonnet 6
Death bee not proude, though some hath called thee
Mighty and Dreadfull, for thou art not soe
For those whom thou thinck’st thou dost overthrowe
Dye not poore Death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest, and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flowe
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and Soules deliuerie.
Thou art slaue to Fate, Chance, Kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warr, and sicknes dwell
And Poppie or Charmes, can make vs sleepe as well
And better then thy stroak, why swell’st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake aeternallye
And Death shall bee noe more. Death, thou shalt dye.
Donne’s tirade against death is a reworking of the words of St Paul in 1 Cor.: ‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (1 Cor. 15:26), and further: ‘So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ (1 Cor. 15:54-55). As St Paul in the letter, Donne personifies Death to address him directly. He distinguishes the fate that awaits Death from the fate of men, who for centuries imagined death as a ‘rest and sleep’. As Donne argues, men ‘die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me’, after the rest and sleep, ‘which but thy pictures be (…) one short sleep past, we wake eternally.’
In the first two quatrains, Donne confronts the public, centuries-old folklore and artistic imagery of Death, its personification in the written and visual arts, to the faith and religion based on the Scripture. The poet thus compares death to sleep and rest as in the language spoken about the deceased or in the funeral art of the period. The established dichotomy between human and mortal helps Donne to convey his religious message.
Donne’s personification of death helps him to confront it. It becomes a real opponent in an argument like an enemy in the battle and therefore it is vulnerable to the attack of a mortal like Donne himself. The speaker expresses his view, that the dead ‘Die not’ and what appears to be a death of a person is just ‘One short sleep.’ With the resurrection the last enemy will be defeated. The personified Death will cease to exist while the mankind will awake from the short sleep to the eternal life. ‘Death shall bee noe more.’ It ‘shalt dye.’
Roman's 