21 pages 42 minutes read

John Donne

Meditation 17

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1630

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Essay Topics

1.

What relationship does the speaker describe among affliction, humankind, and God?

2.

Read Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 17,” which is about the death of his wife, Ann, at age 33. Compare the themes of the sonnet with those in “Meditation 17.”

3.

The British government used the phrase “no man is an island” as a slogan at the beginning of World War II to explain their defense of France and Poland. Can this meaning have relevance to any other historical events?