In addition to the writer's 1624 collection of meditations debates with God and prayers on the human condition-particularly earthly physical sickness and health-this volume contains the 1631 work Death's Duel a sermon said to be his own funeral oration which he preached shortly before his own death. Readers of 17th-century literature religious devotionals and ponderers of human mortality are sure to find something profound in this fascinating famous work.British metaphysical poet JOHN DONNE (1572-1631) renowned for his satires on English society wrote this prose work in the latter part of his life after he became an Anglican priest.