The poem I am referring to is from John Donne, specifically from his work “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions,” written in 1624. The famous lines are:
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were,
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
Meaning:
The poem conveys the idea of human interconnectedness. Donne suggests that no one is truly independent or isolated; instead, everyone is part of a larger whole, much like a small piece of land that is part of a continent. The loss of any person affects the rest of society because we are all connected. The reference to the “bell tolls” refers to the bell rung at funerals, symbolising the idea that the death of any individual should be felt by all because it reminds us of our own mortality and shared humanity.
The core message is that isolation is an illusion, and every person’s fate is linked to the fate of others. It encourages empathy, reminding us that each individual’s suffering or death impacts the whole of humanity, and we should care for one another as part of a collective whole.
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