Monday, April 6, 2020
Maryann McLaughlin, an alumna and good friend, sent this long-famous poem (1624) to accompany her observation about the world’s present condition. She wrote yesterday: “someone said something today about how we can’t be all about just America right now, and this came into my mind. No man is an island. So i looked it up.”
Best to read the poem out loud, several times, with pauses. Have a blest day.
john st sj
Today’s Post: Meditation XVII – Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe;
every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were,
as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were;
any mans death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
John Donne 1572 – 1631
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donne