No Man is an Island

Juaquin Sorolla y Bastida

Otra Margarita

No Man is an Island

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 if a manor 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.

~ John Donne ~

MEDITATION XVII

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

Death, Be Not Proud

Pieter Brueghel

The Triumph of Death

Death, Be Not Proud

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

~ John Donne ~