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Sun 3 Nov, 2002 09:57 pm
Asherman surely you are a Prince of the Ottoman Empire.
Whoops
Now I know the difference between India and Turkey. Sorry for the silly post re you wonderful work.
Joanne,
We westerners need to stick together. Nothing east of the Mississippi that we couldn't do without, right? LOL.
Merton was an important link between Eastern and Western approaches to religion. His works will be read for a long time, but I think that your quote is attributed to the wrong writer. The "No Man is an Island" quote is from John Donne.
I wanted to quote exactly the verse, and have just come from looking through our poetry collection. We have alot of Donne, but not the relavant piece. I've seen it titled two ways; "Devotions", and "Meditation Seventeen". It may be that Meditation 17 is a sub-part of the longer work "Devotions". Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is taken from another oft quoted line from this poem.
The title of Merton's book is taken from Donne.
Selected Poetry of John Donne (1572-1631)
This is a very famous piece of poetry that has provided inspiration and titles for a host of later writers.
Not surprising that 'No Man is an Island' should be recycled a few times. One Stanza of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" inspired titles for two books: O'Henry's "Of Cabbages and Kings" and an after the apocalypse novel called "Why the Sea is Boiling Hot", the author of which I've forgotten.
A great story here, Asherman. Some rainy afternoon, I'm going to print them all and have a great day in spite of the weather.
Correct Asheman, No Man Is An Island is taken fron Donne. However, the quote which is my signature is Merton from his book and thus I am taking the No Man Is An Island Out so as not to confuse anyone.
Yes, I was confused. What do you expect from old men who have nothing better to do than sit on cracker-barrels and spin tall tales?
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