There are 19 Holy Sonnets in John Donne's Collection which contain Donne's debatable thoughts reflecting the time in his life and his relationship with God. Donne's abandonment of the Catholic faith most definitely influenced the content of his sonnets, challenging God or the Devil, pleading for help or expressing self pity or self loathing, but most of all questioning his entry into heaven. His concepts of his own death vary throughout each sonnet, according to his attitude and confidence in him becoming Protestant and his frequently appearing guilt in leaving the Roman Catholic Church.

In the first quatrain of his tenth Holy Sonnet, Donne assertively and directly addresses Death in a critical and belittling tone. The assumed role of the poem is a hero, slandering Death by confronting the power of Death fearlessly. He initiates by saying, "Death, be not proud...Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so...