What does "idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace" mean?

This line appears in one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets, this one called "This is My Play's Last Scene." In this sonnet, Donne imagines himself on his deathbed. The quote in fuller context reads as follows:


This is my play's last scene; here heavens appoint
My pilgrimage's last mile; and my race,
Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My span's last inch



Donne's "race" is his life. In this context, "idly" means without full focus: Donne's life has seemed to meander in an unfocused way but also to pass quickly (it has "quickly run"). His "last pace" is dying, his "[life]span's last inch." Death will separate his body from his soul. His soul, purged from the sinfulness of his body, will, he hopes, go to heaven, while his body stays down on earth. His sins, he says, will fall away: "For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the devil."

Donne does not sound fearful of death in this poem, although he does express a deep fear of meeting his maker. He conceives of life not as an end, but as a prelude to new existence. Life on earth is simply a play full of scenes, and death is one of them.