John Donne's "Dead clods of sadness..." here and "If a clod be washed away by the sea..." in his "No Man Is an Island," both creatively conjure small lumps of earth and insignificance.
We are going to do "No Man is an Island" down the road a piece. Island is the base of our family name, Isolano (Italian), turned into Esolen probably at Ellis Island. Donne's poetry is amazing, and so is his biography.
My late wife, Theresa, and I once visited Isola Bella (Beautiful Island) in the middle of Lake Maggiore seven miles from the Swiss border. The island is the ancestral home of the Borromeo family, and St. Charles Borromeo. The Alps rise from the north end of the lake enhancing the beauty of the island.
We haven't been to that particular place, but have visited the Italian Alps. Tony's grandfathers came from Caserta (his father's father) and Catanzaro (his mother's father), so more southerly. They were not from an island, but the Italians always come up with interesting names for orphans (which Tony's paternal great-grandfather was), and in this case they gave him the last name "Isolano," which means someone who is all alone, as on an island.
John Donne's "Dead clods of sadness..." here and "If a clod be washed away by the sea..." in his "No Man Is an Island," both creatively conjure small lumps of earth and insignificance.
We are going to do "No Man is an Island" down the road a piece. Island is the base of our family name, Isolano (Italian), turned into Esolen probably at Ellis Island. Donne's poetry is amazing, and so is his biography.
My late wife, Theresa, and I once visited Isola Bella (Beautiful Island) in the middle of Lake Maggiore seven miles from the Swiss border. The island is the ancestral home of the Borromeo family, and St. Charles Borromeo. The Alps rise from the north end of the lake enhancing the beauty of the island.
We haven't been to that particular place, but have visited the Italian Alps. Tony's grandfathers came from Caserta (his father's father) and Catanzaro (his mother's father), so more southerly. They were not from an island, but the Italians always come up with interesting names for orphans (which Tony's paternal great-grandfather was), and in this case they gave him the last name "Isolano," which means someone who is all alone, as on an island.
A beautiful prayer
And a very rich one, taking on all sorts of depths of what being loved by God actually means.