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LINES 9 to 10 Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, Meaning- Lines 9 and 10 begin the third quatrain and serve to further demonstrate death's weakness, and to divest it of its fearsome and intimidating quality. Essentially, they function as a kind of character assassination—first showing that death is not a master but a slave, and then that Death is associated with some of the worst elements of the world. Though death is often thought of as something powerful, line 9 argues that it is actually weak, dominated by other elements or people. Firstly, death is "slave" to fate and chance, the assonance of the /a/ vowels bolstering this connection. In essence, death is weaker than fate and chance and depends on them to do its work. Death is so weak, in fact, that it is also beholden to kings and "desperate men." Both of these are, of course, human beings, who are precisely the target of death's work. Kings, acting in positions of power, create conflict and have authority over their subjects. They therefore administer death themselves, implying that Death—the personified version—is just as much a subject as anybody else. (On this note, it's worth remembering that Donne was writing at a time when monarchies were extremely powerful and had a huge role in shaping world history; now, many of them are largely symbolic and ceremonial.) The "desperate men" can be read as referring to people who commit murder, or to those who take their own lives out of desperation—both readings are possible. Line 9 continues this line of argument, accusing death of being a bedfellow of "poison, war and sickness." The speaker presents these as ugly and undesirable things to be associated with. Essentially, death has nothing better to do than hang out with the worst elements of human life.