“Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and…” — John Donne

“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.”

Connecting private grief with the mortality of the whole human community · Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII

John Donne

About John Donne

1572–31 March 1631

John Donne was born in London in 1572, probably in January, though the exact day remains uncertain, and he died in London on 31 March 1631. Few English writers have seemed so divided within themselves, or have turned division into such memorable art. He was at once a Catholic child in a Protestant state, an ambitious…

More by John Donne