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‘No Man Is An Island’, Meaning & Context

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People usually think that the phrase ‘No man is an

island’ comes from Shakespeare, as it sounds like
it is one of Shakespeare’s many famous lines. It
also sounds as though it may have come from the
Bible. There are hundreds of quotations similarly
mistaken as Shakespeare’s, such as “Hell hath no
fury like a woman scorned,” that comes from a
Restoration play, The Mourning Bride by William
Congreve

‘No man is an island’ is an idiom taken from a 17th adJhvs

century sermon by the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral.
The Dean happened to be John Donne, a
clergyman who now, almost four hundred years
later, is regarded as one of the greatest English
poets.

It is often assumed that ‘no man is an island’ is

from one of Donne’s poems: it’s ironic that though
he is the author of some of the finest and most
memorable verses in English poetry, this phrase,
not from a poem, but a sermon, is the most
famous quote from him.

Here is the full John Done quote from his sermon:

“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 any manner of thy
 friends 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.”

No man is an island

Background to John Donne’s

‘No man is an island’ sermon
The words ‘No man is an island’ were embedded in
a deeply Christian sermon about how human
beings are connected to each other, and how
important that connection is for the wellbeing and
survival of any individual. When you hear the
church bell tolling for someone who has died, don’t
ask who it is, Donne says, just know that it’s tolling
for you too because you are part of the same
society and the death of anyone takes a part of
your own life away.

The sermon is noted, not just for ‘no man is an

island,’ but also the phrase ‘for whom the bell tolls,’
which was used by Ernest Hemingway as the title
of his most famous novel.
John Donne and the
development of English
poetry
As Shakespeare was nearing the end of his
playwriting career there was a new poetry taking
hold in English. It was written by poets who were
not professional writers but highly educated men
who had careers in other areas like the Church,
business, diplomacy, and the military.

Their poetry reflected their education and they

used the latest developments in science,
geography, astronomy, etc. to make their imagery:
their poems had a strong intellectual component.
Shakespeare himself, never for a moment one of
the many poets who became old-fashioned in the
face of the new poetry, became a part of this
poetic development, which we now call
‘metaphysical poetry’ and the poets “the
metaphysical poets,”. In fact, some of
Shakespeare’s verse in his poems and plays were
models for the metaphysical poets.

The metaphysical poets did not regard their poetry

writing as meaning that they were “poets” in the
sense that men like John Milton and Edmund
Spencer were – they were busy men in their own
fields who wrote poems more as a hobby, not
publishing them but passing them around to
friends who also wrote poems. In that way, they
influenced each other. Looking at their poems now
there are striking similarities, which amounts to
their being a ‘school’ of poetry – ‘the metaphysical
poets.’
When we look back now at the metaphysical poets
John Donne is, without doubt, the best of them. His
poems are powerful and beautiful, mainly about
love, but becoming some of the most powerful
religious poems like his sonnets ‘Batter my heart
three person’d God,’ ‘At the round earth’s imagined
corners blow your trumpets angels’ and ‘Death be
not proud, though some have called you mighty
and dreadful’.

That development from love to religious poetry

reflects Donne’s career and personal development.
He trained as a lawyer then embarked on a life of
adventure as a soldier and explorer, becoming well
known as a man about town, popular with women.
He settled down at the age of 25 as a high-level
secretary, where he fell in love with his wealthy
employer’s niece Anne More. He married her
secretly, which enraged her uncle: the couple had
to disappear. Donne wrote a small verse to
describe their plight: “John Donne, Anne Donne,
Undone.”

The pair went to London where Donne eked out a

meager living until he was elected to parliament in
1602. In the 16 years of their marriage, Anne gave
birth to 12 children, dying during the birth of the
twelfth.

After several years as a member of parliament,

Donne converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism,
took holy orders, and entered the church,
eventually becoming the Dean of St Pauls, where
he wrote and delivered a great number of
wonderful sermons.
His sermons, as powerful as his poems, are full of
lines and ideas that indicate an intense life,
profound thoughts, and a strong sense of humour.
Some other famous lines from his sermons are:

“When one man dies, one chapter is

not torn out of the book, but
translated into a better language”

“And who understands? Not me,

because if I did I would forgive it all.”

“Death is an ascension to a better

library”

“Reason is our soul’s left hand, faith

her right. By these we reach divinity”

“He that hath all can have no more.”

Of all of John Donne’s quotes – from his sermons

and poetry, “No man is an island” stands apart as
the most perfect expression of an individual’s
position in relation to society.

a d J h v s
10
REPLIES

john
November 28, 2020 at 6:20 pm

amazing job

Reply