Student Question
How do "I Am a Rock" lyrics relate to John Donne's "Meditation 17" message?
Quick answer:
John Donne in "Meditation 17" and Simon and Garfunkel in their song “I Am a Rock” share a common thread. While Donne claims “no man is an island,” Simon and Garfunkel state the opposite. In both instances, fear is invoked. For Donne, it’s the fear that, because no man is an island, he might be infected with a sickness. For Simon and Garfunkel, that fear is being emotionally hurt. Donne advocates openness, Simon and Garfunkel to become islands.
John Donne’s "Meditation 17" contains the line “no man is an island,” and Simon and Garfunkel’s song “I Am a Rock” says the opposite, “I am an island.” Donne refers to the idea that we are all connected, whether we admit or not.
All mankind is of one author, and is one volume.
Every man is piece of the continent, part of the main.
Since all humanity is part of the same planet, it is impossible to be anything other than connected. It is akin to marriage: we are together in sickness and in health. As for sickness, when one person is ill, that person puts others at risk, too—as Donne says we are “brought near the door by this sickness.” In times of health, “every book shall lie open to one another.” Donne, if not a socialist by name, nonetheless enumerates socialist principles: humans are only as strong as...
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they are united.
Contrast that to Simon and Garfunkel. It is, on the surface, a celebration of individualism, the American version of it. The narrator is proud to say they are an island. Sickness? Friends Comradeship?
I’ve built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
In addition to their walls, the narrator goes on to say they are protected by “books and poetry" and is “safe within my womb.”
But could this individualism be an act? Is the narrator actually expressing the same kind of humanity Donne did? Yes and no. This narrator is expressing humanity, but its strain is still of the individual variety. Donne, too, touches on this, but his expression “no man is an island” means that no distance is enough to escape life’s pain—Donne recognizes books and poetry have their uses, but one of those uses is not to prevent life from interfering.
Simon and Garfunkel’s individualism is a familiar one, one based on fear—in this case, the fear of being hurt emotionally. As the song concludes, the narrator confesses what’s really going on:
And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries