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Before the birth of modern medicine, life expectancy was significantly less than now. Many writers who struggled with the thought of a rather early death often wrote about their feelings on the subject. In “Meditation 17”, John Donne offers his thoughts on death. He presents his thoughts with the use of an extended metaphor, which compares humanity to a book in which each person makes up a chapter. He uses this metaphor to help readers understand the main idea of this work. “Meditation 17” was written to invoke thought upon its central idea. In the beginning Donne attempts to grab the attention of his readers by warning that when a funeral bell is heard, the bell tolls not only for the dead one but also for every person who hears it. This establishes the central idea. When a member of the church dies, every person loses a small part of him or her own self. He goes on to explain that this is because, “the church is catholic” or embraces all human kind. This provides the base of several