No man is an island
-- Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: This line is perhaps the most famous Donne ever authored (the final line of this same excerpt being the only other real contender). It expresses a powerful argument against isolation. Though an island can stand on its own and still thrive, Donne writes that no person ever can.

Every man is a part of the continent
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 2)

Importance: This often-ignored line is the positive framing of the much more famous preceding line. While the well-known quote discusses what man is not (an island), this construction tells us what people are – part of a continent, and a larger whole. This poem is thus not just a rejection of the possibility of aloneness, but an expression of connection.

As well as any manner of thy friends or thine
-- Speaker (Line 5)

Importance: This is the final item in an extensive list of things that, if lost, will diminish all of Europe. This list...