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John Donne and Matthew Arnold, two poets of different time periods both wrote two very similar poems, which were very well recognized for their extended metaphors. Their poems compare life and society to an island or a continent, and there is a force either trying to, or is connecting humans to one another. In both poems, they are using an extended metaphor in comparing life in their present society to an island or continent. The common ground of the poem is the metaphor, and how there is a social situation being compared to this island or continent. Other than that idea, the views of Arnold and Donne differ, but are connected together at the same time. Arnold explains how society was once all connected as a whole, and how their society was broken up into many little islands within a sea. The sea represents life and how it is always flowing, and the islands symbolize the people within this sea. Arnold tells how these islands were all once connected as a whole