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Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

by John DONNE (1572 - 1631)

06 - Devotion 6

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions is a 1624 prose work by the English writer John Donne. It is a series of reflections that were written as Donne recovered from a serious illness, believed to be either typhus or relapsing fever. (Donne does not clearly identify the disease in his text.) The work consists of twenty-three parts describing each stage of the sickness. Each part is further divided into a Meditation, an Expostulation, and a Prayer.The seventeenth meditation is perhaps the best-known part of the work. It contains the following passage:"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 friend's 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." (Summary by Wikipedia)

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Listen next episodes of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions:
07 - Devotion 7 , 08 - Devotion 8 , 09 - Devotion 9 , 10 - Devotion 10 , 11 - Devotion 11 , 12 - Devotion 12 , 13 - Devotion 13 , 14 - Devotion 14 , 15 - Devotion 15 , 16 - Devotion 16 , 17 - Devotion 17 , 18 - Devotion 18 , 19 - Devotion 19 , 20 - Devotion 20 , 21 - Devotion 21 , 22 - Devotion 22 , 23 - Devotion 23