Funeral reading
No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)
John Donne
“No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)” by John Donne is a prose reading read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about 35 seconds read aloud, usually by the officiant. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
For someone whose death took something out of a whole community.
Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: no man is an island · for whom the bell tolls · a community loss · someone who held a town together · short.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)” take to read aloud?
“No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)” takes about 35 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)”?
Usually the officiant rather than a guest reader. “No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)” runs about 35 seconds, which sits inside the part of the service the officiant is already leading, and keeping it there means it is carried by the person who has rehearsed it.
Can “No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the life, the remembrances, the committal — and knowing what comes next. Answer some questions about them and get the whole service, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Gone From My Sight — the shipa minute and a halfAttributed to Luther F. Beecher; widely printed as Henry Van Dyke
- Death Is Nothing At Alla minute and a halfHenry Scott Holland
- On Death, from The Prophet50 secondsKahlil Gibran
- The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph25 secondsBenjamin Franklin
- Remember55 secondsChristina Rossetti
- There Will Be Rest25 secondsSara Teasdale