“No man is an Island
all to itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
When
the great English priest and poet John
Donne, considered by many as the most loved poet in the English language,
published his famous poem entitled “No
man is an island”* in 1624, it was received by many of his contemporaries
with skepticism. It was written at a time when he was gravely ill and survival
was in doubt. He was trying to make the case that, contrary to the existing
class and gender distinctions in the society, as well as the co-existing
rampant slavery and racial subjugation which was the accepted norm, we as human
beings cannot exist in isolation but as a part of the whole ‘continent of humanity.’ He went further
to suggest that in fact, in the broadest sense, there should be no boundaries existing between anyone in the world. In
the eyes of God, we are all one and are meant to be such.
He
viewed all mankind as being a book with only one author and all the members
being included together within its pages. He argued further that because of
this arrangement, each one affects, and is affected by everyone else in
indirect and direct ways. So, as a result, whenever someone dies it will affect
everyone else in some way. He explained further, that in the same way after
reading it, ‘the page is not torn off and
discarded but continues on in the body of the book,’ so too in death the
person is not discarded and forgotten but continues on in our memories. He continues in his poem in the following way:
“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”
He reasoned that when one
person dies, like the fluttering of the butterfly wings or a drop of water
falling into the sea, it sends a ripple into the world that will affect all of
us, each in a very different but personal way, preparing us for our own event.
So that he concluded, whenever you hear the bells ringing, they will be ringing
for everyone. This is the reason for comparing the human race to a continuous
continent rather than isolated islands, and to his insistence that we are not
separate but all shared in the unity of humanity.
The idea behind this observation is that irrespective of whatever
we do or think we are doing, we cannot avoid the fact that we are all
interconnected in so many ways, one with the other, in an unending fabric, very
much like the parts in the body or of the countries in a continent. Clearly in
any person, the eyes cannot afford to be indifferent to the heart, or the lungs
or the arm or any other part of its body. Nor for that matter, can anyone, or
any people or any community or group, for whatever reason, set themselves apart
for others, since what happens to one part will necessarily affect all the
others in some way or another. As Donne so beautifully points out, that
whenever the bell tolls, it is inevitably tolling for each one of us in a
personal way. -Whether we listen to it or ignore it, is a different consideration.
The real tragedy is that despite the passage of all these
centuries, man has yet to learn the wisdom of this approach and we are
therefore condemned to a world where the hope of love and sharing is
overshadowed by the intent of constant turmoil brought on by division, anger
and suspicion. Where, instead of expanding and building more bridges of
understanding in our world for all of us, we are choosing to build more and
more islands and barriers and separations. Thus reaffirming all the more, the validity
of John Donne’s lament on all our
behalf:
“Never send
to know for whom the bells toll. It tolls for thee”
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