“No man is an island”: John Donne; poem and analysis

“No man is an island”: John Donne; poem and analysis.

No man is an island (No Man Is an Island)—aka: For whom the Bell Tolls— is a metaphysical poem by the English writer John Donne (1572-1631). This is Meditation XVII of his work: Meditations (Meditations), in turn, part of the work: Devotions on emerging occasions (Devotions upon Emergent Occasions). The poem would later be republished in the 1633 anthology: Poems.

No man is an island, perhaps one of John Donne’s most notable poems, integrates two of the author’s best-known phrases: “No man is an island” and “Never ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you.” The poem rejects the idea that everyone can follow their own path, away from others. We are all connected.

The meaning of No man is an island of John Donne is clear: we are not individual beings, but rather we belong to a great family, to a race, humanity, and that the death of any person should be a cause of suffering and sorrow for all of us, precisely because the All has lost a part of himself.

That is to say, the funeral bells that ring the death of another person also ring for us, not only because death is just another part of life, but as a reminder that we ourselves will die someday.

When John Donne wrote No man is an island He was seriously ill, and his own death, as well as the concept of mortality, were surely present in his mind; hence the poem is so vivid, so sincere.

The devastating force of No man is an island It is not in its meaning, but in the language that John Donne decided to use. Typically, his metaphysical poems elaborated on a single idea, expressed it in a series of metaphors, and then carried it toward a conclusion, often deliberately absurd. In No man is an islandJohn Donne achieves an even more forceful development of the metaphor: no one lives or exists alone, and we are all part of something bigger than ourselves (see: John Donne and the danger of reciprocal love).

No man is an island.
No Man Is an Island, John Donne (1572-1631)

No man is an island
itself.
Each man is a piece of a continent,
a part of the whole.
If the sea carries away a piece of land,
all of Europe is diminished,
as if it were a promontory,
or the house of one of your friends,
or your own.
Anyone’s death affects me,
because I find myself united with all humanity;
Therefore, never ask for whom the bell tolls;
they double for you.

Gothic poems. I Poems of John Donne.

More gothic literature:

The analysis, translation into Spanish and summary of the poem by John Donne: No man is an island (No Man Is an Island), were made by . For reproduction, write to us at