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| The Byzantine church of Agia Sophia, at Kampos, Ikaria. |
“… never send to
know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
~ from Meditation
XVII, by John Donne
The above words (part of John Donne’s, Meditation XVII,
published in 1624), were the first thing that came to mind when I woke up early
one recent morning to the tolling from the solitary bell attached to the belfry
of the Byzantine church of Agia Sophia, in Kampos, Ikaria. The mournful toll of
the bell, at intervals of 4-5 seconds each, announced the passing of a local
islander. More to the point, because the Ag. Sophia church was being used to
bring notice of the death to the surrounding community, it meant that someone
in Kampos (or a relative of someone in the village), had died.
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| John Donne |
Like most people familiar with the above quote, I had never
given much thought to those lines from John Donne. I was knew them to the
extent that I knew the writer Ernest Hemingway had quoted Donne for the title
of his 1940 book, For Whom The Bell Tolls. I also understood that the
phrase, and the larger passage it comes from, is one of the most quoted of John
Donne’s writings, and that it refers to death and loss, and the
interconnections between the living and the dead. Here is the full paragraph:
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.
Until I woke to the sound of the tolling bell, I had assumed
the custom had long since slipped out of usage, and that other more modern
means of informing people of someone’s passing must surely now be in use. But
of course, I was wrong.
I must admit that I was not prepared for the emotional
impact the tolling bell had on me. The older I get, and the closer I get to my
own demise, the more I am conscious that the clock is ticking, and that time is
slowly running out. Not just for me, but for all of us. While no one wants to
be reminded of this obvious fact, and while most of us are happy to ignore the
obvious as much as possible, the solitary tolling of the church bell, was a
stark reminder that life is short. So, don't ask "...for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."
More Information
Gutenberg: John Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions…
