The Bells Of Canterbury

 

Beyond the cliffs of Dover

Beyond the silver sea

Beyond the coasts of ignorance

There begins my fantasy

If I could tell you one of the things 

That moves me today

I can no longer hear

The bells of Canterbury

 

They've disappeared

Gone out of hearing

Silenced, like the bishop

Who dared to face the king

Murdered in the Cathedral

By the king's own men

 

Now the people are the knaves

And the people are the king

And the people are the bishop

And the bells will cease to ring

 

“No man is an island entire of itself

Each is a piece of the continent

A part of the main

If a clod be washed away by the sea

Europe is the less

Then send not to know

For whom the bell tolls

Send not to know

For it tolls for thee”

 

Beyond the cliffs of Dover

Beyond the silver sea

No man is an island

And the bell, it tolls for thee

 

Now the people are the knaves

And the people are the king

And the people are the bishop

And the bells will cease to ring

 

A piece of the continent 

Washed away by the sea

And I will never hear again

The bells of Canterbury

 

(“No Man Is An Island” by John Donne, 1572-1631)