For whom the bell tolls

John Donne – Meditation XVII

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
It tolls for thee. 

Ningún hombre es una isla, 

entera en sí,

Cada hombre es pieza de continente,

parte del total.

Si el villano es arrastrado por el mar,

Europa se reduce.

Cual si fuera  promontorio,

cual si fuera coro de amigos,

o  fuera propia:

Toda muerte me disminuye,

pues estoy con la humanidad

Así no pidas saber por

quién dobla la campana;

dobla por ti.

A.     Answer the following questions:

1.      Could you summarize the content of the poem in just a sentence?

 Each human is a part of a whole, humanity.

2.      What does the poem make you feel?

 It makes me feel a bit melancholic as well as a bit reflexive. Are we just a small piece of a huge puzzle? what happens if a piece gets lost? does it affect us? 

3.      Do you consider the poem a good description of a feeling? Why?

From my point of view, the poem cannot be considered a description of a feeling itself, because it doesn't portray or list a serie of characteristics about an especific emotion, which would be the main topic. However it produces in the reader the feeling of anguish and melancholy that the author wanted to transmitt by touching topics as dead, and lost. 

Text from: For Whom the Bell Tolls?, by Ernest Hemingway

The night was clear and his head felt as clear and cold as the air. He smelled the odor of the pine boughs under him, the piney smell of the crushed needles and the sharper odor of the resinous sap from the cut limbs. Pilar, he thought. Pilar and the smell of death. This is the smell I love. This and fresh-cut clover, the crushed sage as you ride after cattle, wood-smoke and the burning leaves of autumn. That must be the odor of nostalgia, the smell of the smoke from the piles of raked leaves burning in the streets in the fall in Missoula. Which would you rather smell? Sweet grass the Indians used in their baskets? Smoked leather? The odor of the ground in the spring after rain? The smell of the sea as you walk through the gorse on a headland in Galicia? Or the wind from the land as you come in toward Cuba in the dark? That was the odor of the cactus flowers, mimosa and the sea-grape shrubs. Or would you rather smell frying bacon in the morning when you are hungry? Or coffee in the morning? Or a Jonathan apple as you bit into it? Or a cider mill in the grinding, or bread fresh from the oven? You must be hungry, he thought, and he lay on his side and watched the entrance of the cave in the light that the stars reflected from the snow.

B.      Answer the questions:

1.       Do you consider this text a description? From your view, what is he describing?

 Yes, because it lists a serie of adjetctives about certain objects or aliments which help the reader imagine them. 

From my point of view he describes two things. First the scenary he is at and then the two smells he loves the most

2.       Could a description include questions?

 Yes, if it is to help the reader visualize the topic which is being defined.

3.       What is the smell for the author?

 Nostalgia

4.       Could you write a topic sentence for the excerpt?

 The smell of the past.