Holy Sonnet 10 :: John Donne

William Penn, an English philosopher and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, once said that, â€Å"For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.† He is saying that death is not the end of our lives, but just another stage. In the poem â€Å"Holy Sonnet 10† by John Donne, the poet talks to death itself and gives his opinion on his view of death and others’ views: it is something that cannot control anything, can be replaced by others things, and is not the end of a person’s life. Through the use of his figurative language, Petrachan form, and tone and language, Mr. Donne expresses the message that death is not to be feared because one lives on in heaven. John uses many examples of figurative language in his sonnet. To begin with, when Mr. Donne first commences his poem, he uses the personification â€Å"Death, be not proud† (1). The author is giving death the human characteristics of being â€Å"not proud.† The rest of the line continues as â€Å"though some have called you thee. † Death should not be prideful even if people think it is. John displays through this first line how he feels about death: he is too prideful for his own good. Furthermore, Donne uses another personification when he states â€Å"Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so† (2). Again, he is giving death, a concept not a human, real characteristics. He believes death is not â€Å"mighty† or â€Å"dreadful† but something else. It gives his opinion that death is not â€Å"dreadful† to people in their lives but possibly beneficial. Later, the poet says â€Å"Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate menà ¢â‚¬  (9). Death is merely being controlled by things like fate which is the only way he can act. He has no way to move on his own without these other forces. Like with war, death is the result not the cause: death cannot physically make people fight. This comparison devalues death in its importance and therefore its necessity. John Donne’s use of metaphors and personifications in his poem to emphasize his belief that death is not as bad as people or death thinks it really is but can actually be advantageous. The tone and allusions are important for John to portray how death is insignificant and irrelevant and that after death one moves on to a better place: heaven.