For Whom the Bell Tolls
A commoner misunderstanding
"Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Most people today hear John Donne's 1624 meditation as a Jacob Marley–style warning — the ghost pointing at your grave, reminding you of your own mortality. But this modern interpretation is exactly backwards. Donne wasn't issuing a personal death warning. He was making the opposite point: …
