The Holy Sonnets written by John Donne are ripe with the images and extended metaphors typically associated with his work. Donne's imagery and biblical references reflect a solemn tone that underscores the sincerity of these sonnets.
In Sonnet 5, Donne begins a conceit by stating that he is in fact a miniature representation of the world. His comparison emphasizes the catastrophic nature of the discoveries of Galileo and the explorers of the new world on one person's religious worldview. The final quartet and couplet allude to biblical flood and fire and show the severity of pleading with God to allow the preservation of one's faith. Sonnet 10 deals with the subject of death. The imagery involved in this poem associates death with its causes such as war, poison and sickness and subjects it to the whim of fate, chance, king, and desperate men. This idea of death obeying these wills as a slave and cohorting with war and sickness personifies death and enhances the apostrophe by clearly depicting death and death's actions and thus adding an image to Donne's direct address of death.