A poetic interlude

We do not have a normal Friday Five reflection for you this week (due to holidays), but instead we would like to offer a brief poetic interlude. 

The following two contrasting pieces describe two very different experiences of being connected with others. One emerges from a deep conviction of human interdependence; the other expresses the attempt to escape from pain in relationships by asserting solitary independence.  

One is an excerpt from "A meditation on sickness and death" by John Donne (1624), and the other is the song by Paul Simon (1965), "I am a rock". 

No man is an island, entire of itselfe; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the maine;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine owne were;
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

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A winter's day in a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock, I am an island.

I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock, I am an island.

Don't talk of love, but I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock, I am an island.

I have my books and my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock, I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.