No Man Is an Island

Since Donne originally wrote his poem in prose form in his “Meditation 17,” the poetic adaptations vary. The lines from Donne’s devotional writing are broken into different configurations and lengths depending on the adaptation. In the adaptation used in this study guide, the sermon is broken down into 13 lines. Each line length varies from the one that comes before it, alternating between a longer line and a shorter line. Other adaptations vary the line breaks so that each line is the same length, making the poem look square and blocky. However, with this adaptation, the variation in line length fits with the poem’s usage of water imagery with bits of earth being washed away by the sea. The alternation between longer and shorter lines creates a sense of ebb and flow, just like the sea tide.

Because the poem originated as prose, it does not have a distinct metrical pattern. The metrical pattern analyzed in this particular adaptation may also vary from another version of the text. Each line varies in its combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables. One aspect to note about the meter of Donne’s poem is the repetition of repeated stressed syllables, which occurs sporadically throughout. For example, the opening line contains two pairs of these stressed syllables: “No man is an is-land” (Line 1). The use of these paired stressed syllables helps to hammer home Donne’s argument against singularity and isolation. Another example occurs in Line 5: “If a clod be washed away by the sea.” Again the use of repeated stresses at the beginning of this line indicates the significance of the point Donne’s speaker is about to make. Donne’s last line similarly contains numerous stressed syllables to emphatically end his commentary on mortality: “It tolls for thee”(Line 13).

The only two lines that contain a repeated pattern that occurs consecutively are Lines 7 and 8: “As well as if a promontory were / As well as if a manor of thy friend’s.” Both lines present iambic pentameter, meaning that they contain five units of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The repetition of this metrical pattern coincides with the list of metaphors comparing the washing away of a single piece of earth with a larger piece or a homestead. Since each example is given the same metrical pattern, they all are given the same weight and importance.