'Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.' -John Donne
English poet John Donne, mostly known as a pioneer of new poetic techniques and the foremost of the metaphysical poets, also wrote a series of meditations while a chaplain in the Church of England. "Meditation XVII" is responsible for several well-known phrases: "No man is an island, entire of itself," writes Donne, "every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Frequently ill in his later life, Donne concentrated on more somber subject matter in his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions than his poetry had hitherto been known for -- after the above quote, Donne, writing about the ringing of a church bell, concludes, "and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
