Sorrow itself is not so hard to bear As the thought of sorrow coming. Airy ghosts, That work no harm, do terrify us more Than men in steel with bloody purposes. Death is not dreadful; 'tis the dread of death— We die whene'er we think of it!

The speaker argues that anticipation is often more painful than the event itself: imagined grief, imagined danger, and imagined death can tyrannize the mind more than real, immediate threats. “Airy ghosts” suggests fears without substance—mental projections that nonetheless provoke stronger terror than “men in steel,” i.e., tangible adversaries. The paradox “Death is not dreadful; ’tis the dread of death” frames anxiety as a kind of living death: we “die” repeatedly in thought whenever we rehearse catastrophe. The passage is a compact meditation on psychological suffering, emphasizing how imagination magnifies pain and how courage may consist in refusing to live in advance of misfortune.