John Donne is a famous English metaphysical poet and theologian, rightfully included in the "Brodsky list".The book includes prose texts by John Donne devoted to reflections on life, death and immortality, on the impermanence and predestination of being."An Appeal to the Lord in the hour of need and calamity" is one of the brightest literary monuments of the era, combining a diary, a medical bulletin, a philosophical work, a theological treatise and a prayer book. Donn, who had come down with a severe fever attack, approached the very edge of the grave and only miraculously survived. The experience of approaching death, documented step by step, became the basis of "Appeals to the Lord ..."."The Struggle of death, or the Consolation of the soul" is the last sermon of John Don, delivered by him a few days before his death and therefore called "a funeral word to himself."