Meditation 17

Donne was the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, a position of great honor in the Anglican Church. Before he attained that role, Donne was a well-known lyric poet, womanizer (the sublimated eroticism of his early poetry earned him the nickname “Jack the Rake” in later scholarship), man of letters, and suspected Catholic recusant. Thus, his works encompass a wide range of secular and religious topics. The striking contrasts between Donne’s early and later life manifest most notably in his sermons, which many scholars regard as the most brilliant and eloquent of his time. “Meditation 17” is among the most well-known of these sermons, and an allusion to it famously appears in Modernist literature: American writer Ernest Hemingway titled his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls as a call to a personal involvement in the Spanish Civil War and as a concrete expression of common humanity. Another wartime application was the British government’s borrowing of the phrase “no man is an island” at the beginning World War II; this became a slogan justifying the British troops’ defense of Poland and France. The themes and words of “Meditation 17” clearly stand the test of time.

An analysis of Donne’s work—even those pieces that are spiritual in nature—must always take into consideration his initial works of metaphysical poetry. Although there are several writers in this group of Metaphysical poets, Donne is widely considered the greatest of the metaphysical poets. These 17th-century writers were energized by scientific developments, exploration, and intellectual pursuits in general. These interests are reflected in their works, which frequently include logical arguments, paradoxes, irony, intellectual impishness (often called “wit”), complicated conceits, and rhythms of ordinary speech. The very traits that were admired by Donne’s contemporaries were disdained by audiences in the subsequent era. The next generation rejected Donne’s poetry because of its complexity, nontraditional rhythm, and irreverent metaphors. It was not until T. S. Eliot claimed that Donne was a precursor to Modernism—particularly due to his prose-like poetry—that Donne’s literary merit was once again acknowledged. In fact, many consider Donne to be the greatest English lyric poet, second only to Shakespeare. The natural rhythms of Donne’s poetry evolved into poetry-like prose of his later sermons; likewise, the broader characteristics of metaphysical poetry inform Donne’s later religious writings.

One example of metaphysical qualities is the highly intellectual nature of “Meditation 17” and, in particular, its discussion of the body of believers of the Christian church. As a minister, Donne attempts to explain the universality of Christianity, but instead of relying on theological tropes, he crafts a scientific metaphor through syllogistic logic to illustrate the connection between people baptized into the same faith: A newly baptized child “is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingraffed into that body, whereof I am a member” (Line 6). The use of scientific metaphors, a common element of his metaphysical poetry, also thoroughly characterizes the prose Meditation.

Another common quality of metaphysical poetry is the belief that platonic love is capable of uniting souls; this spiritual nature of love is a means to attain more permanent fulfillment than physical passion. “Meditation 17” embraces this concept through the extraordinary empathy implicit in Donne’s argument, which claims that when the church “buries a man, that action concerns me” because all people are spiritually united (Line 6). If one person—an essential part of the body of believers—dies, then a part of each believer has died (while Donne specifically addressed Christians, he also invokes the entirety of humanity, citing that “all of mankind is of one author” [Line 6]). Donne points out that everyone pays attention to the knell, establishing the shared experiences of the congregation—but upon hearing a death toll, it is impossible to stop listening, because the sound indicates “passing a piece of [oneself] out of this world” (Line 13). The conceit presents such a platonic love as the highest plane of the soul: empathy by virtue of the shared human condition and the shared divine “author.”

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions includes 23 individual sermons—one for each day of Donne’s illness. The sermons follow the traditional pattern of the devotional writing of the late Renaissance. Each contains a daily meditation on an aspect of the illness, an expostulation on what Donne has learned through the experience, and a prayer through which he makes peace with God in light of his likely death. Donne avoided publishing his works and preferred that they were circulated (with or without his knowledge) among his friends and wider literate circles. Devotions upon Emergent Occasions is unique in that it is one of seven works published by Donne—and very shortly after his recuperation. This haste is significant, implying that Donne found a particular urgency in sharing his near-death revelations.

“Meditation 17” begins with an activating event—hearing the church bells ringing—which introduces the work’s most significant symbol and lays the groundwork for the metaphor’s elaborate extension. By beginning this sermon with the sound of a bell tolling, Donne chooses a familiar experience that is authentic and relatable to his audience. He is, in effect, calling his audience to pay attention. His solemn preamble, “Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris” (Line 1), establishes the meditative occasion, and the message—“Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die”—immediately immerses his contemporary audience in the moment: A bell is ringing for someone in our church, and we can all hear it. The dramatic situation announces the theme—the irrevocable communion between all church members, even all of humanity—by concluding that the bell reminds us that we, too, will die. This metaphysical premise finds elaboration in the expostulation portion of the sermon.

“Meditation 17” manifests the Jacobean-Age belief that the human condition is to suffer. Donne and his contemporaries believed that suffering is not only a blessing but a treasure: “Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it” (Line 16). Moreover, Donne argues that challenges help people “to be matured and ripened […] and made fit for God by that affliction” (Line 17). Simply suffering is not enough; unless someone uses their suffering to reflect on God and the afterlife, then the suffering is useless. Pain for pain’s sake is worthless; pain as an avenue to heaven is priceless.

Donne, as an Anglican minister, uses “Meditation 17” to drive home certain key tenets of his religion. One of those beliefs is that God is intimately concerned with each of his creations—that he “authors” not only every birth, but each death. Donne claims that “God’s hand is in every translation” (Line 6). This symbolic assertion plays into one of the meditation’s three conceits, presenting God as the divine writer who authors each believer’s passage from life to the afterlife, from time to eternity. Another of Donne’s key spiritual tenets is that earthly life is temporary and only a preparation for the eternal afterlife. Indeed, the point of living is to prepare for death (and rebirth into eternity)—such paradoxes typify Donne’s work, whether poetry or prose. An aspect of that earthly preparation is the constant contemplation of one’s death, particularly when one is reminded of their own mortality when another person dies. The sermon’s conclusion underscores the connection: “If by this consideration of another’s danger, I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself […] to my God, who is my only security” (Line 20).