John Donne

English poet and cleric (1572–1631)

John Donne (1572-1631) was a British metaphysical poet. He wrote love poems and sonnets but later in his life became religious and wrote many Christian poems. He was also Dean of St Paul's Cathedral and was the author of many sermons.

John Donne

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His famous poems include A valediction forbidding mourning, Batter My Heart, The Sun Rising and Good Friday, riding westward.

The book, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) has meditations and prayers. One of these meditations, Meditation XVII, has the famous phrases "No man is an island" and "...for whom the bell tolls". (The words of the original book, used the phrase "No man is an Iland", but the phrase has often been published with modern spelling (of those words).

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