Page 125 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“Holy Sonnet X”
by John Donne, page 10

Vocabulary
poppy – a type of flower used to make opium

1. What type of poem is “Holy Sonnet X”?

2. How does the speaker portray Death? What are the different forces that bring it on?

3. Why does Donne say that those who Death thinks he kills, “die not”?

4. Explain the significance of the caesurae in the poem’s final line.

5. By addressing Death, Donne’s poem is an example of what literary device?

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