“No Man Is an Island” Introduction

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“No Man Is an Island” Summary

“No Man Is an Island” Themes

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  Human Connection

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “No Man Is an Island”

• Line 1

  No man is an island, entire of itself;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 1-2

  every man is a
  piece of the continent, a part of the main;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 2-5

  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
  friend's or of thine own were;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  any man's death
  diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-8

  and
  therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
  it tolls for thee.

  

  

  

  

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“No Man Is an Island” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Conceit

  

  

  

  

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• Pun

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Antithesis

  

  

  

  

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“No Man Is an Island” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Entire of itself
• Main
• Clod
• The less
• Promontory
• Manor
• Thy
• Thine
• Diminishes
• Send to know
• Tolls
• Thee

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “No Man Is an Island”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“No Man Is an Island” Speaker

“No Man Is an Island” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “No Man Is an Island”

More “No Man Is an Island” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a live reading by musician P.J. Harvey.

  • Donne's Life and Work — Learn more about Donne's life story via the Poetry Foundation.

  • Donne and Death — A podcast discussing the poet's attitude towards mortality. 

  • The 17th Meditation — Check out the longer Meditation in which this famous excerpt appears.

  • Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions — Explore the full text of the book in which this famous paragraph appears, written by Donne during a period of sickness (and recovery). 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

  • A Hymn to God the Father

  • Air and Angels

  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Elegy V: His Picture

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  • Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • Song: Go and catch a falling star

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Dream

  • The Ecstasy

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed