John Donne (1572-1631) was the leading lyric poet of the generation that followed Spenser, Sidney and Shakespeare. Donne wrote precocious verse, mostly on erotic subjects, during the last years of Elizabeth's reign. During the Stuart reigns of the early seventeenth century, Donne wrote brilliant religious verse, as well as prose meditations and sermons that are without equal in the English language. From these prose works come phrases that have taken a permanent place in the language, such as "death be not proud," "no man is an island," and "ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."