Funeral reading
Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)
John Donne
“Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)” by John Donne is a poem read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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 pictures 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.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
Where it comes from
John Donne wrote this sonnet between February and August 1609, and it was first published in 1633, two years after his death, as one of his Holy Sonnets.
What it says
The speaker talks straight to Death and takes it down a peg. People call you mighty and dreadful, but you are not; the people you think you kill do not really die, and you cannot kill me either. Sleep, which is only your picture, gives us pleasure, so you must give more. You are a servant of fate, chance, kings and desperate men, and drugs can put us to sleep as well as you can, so why are you so proud? The final couplet is the knockout: after one short sleep we wake for ever, and Death itself will die.
Speaks straight at death and tells it off. Pairs with Romans 8. Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: death shall die · arguing with death · defiance · a person of faith · formal.
Who it suits
A person of firm Christian faith, and a family who want a reading with backbone rather than softness. It suits a death after a long illness, where the family feel death has been an enemy and want it answered. It is less suited to a secular service, since the resurrection is the whole argument, and the seventeenth-century English needs a capable reader.
Where it goes in the ceremony
Often paired with a scripture reading such as Romans 8 or 1 Corinthians 15, either just before or just after it. A confident reader, perhaps a son, daughter or friend who reads well aloud, rather than the officiant.
Reading it aloud
The text on this page is 123 words. At a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, which is slower than conversation, that comes to about 55 seconds of reading.
- Address Death as a person in the room. It helps to fix your eyes on one spot slightly above the audience and speak to it.
- The syntax is twisty. Practice until you know where each sentence ends, because the line breaks will not tell you.
- “Poppy or charms” means drugs and spells; say it plainly and keep moving.
- The last line has two parts. Pause at the semicolon, then give “Death, thou shalt die” slowly, with the weight on “die”.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)” take to read aloud?
“Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)” runs about a minute and a half, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the life, the remembrances, the committal — and knowing what comes next. Answer some questions about them and get the whole service, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Romans 8:31–35, 37–39a minute and a halfNothing can separate us, the scripture it is often paired with
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–57a minute and a halfO death, where is thy sting, from the same argument
- No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)40 secondsDonne again, in prose and more communal
- Remember55 secondsChristina Rossetti
- Requiem30 secondsRobert Louis Stevenson
- Crossing the Bar55 secondsAlfred, Lord Tennyson