How Does John Donne Use Metaphors In Meditation 17

“Meditation 17”, a text by John Donne, uses metaphors to develop the central idea that all people are connected. To convey this, Donne uses two metaphors to establish the concept of unity with every person in the world. The first metaphor describes how the church is universal and people are connected through it. He states, “the church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions” (488). This forms the idea that every person is connected, with depicting the church as connected to all people. The metaphor is expanded, by referring to the Church’s actions that “when she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member” (488). Each