Please provide a summary and an analysis of John Donne's "Meditation 17."

In "Meditation 17," John Donne is quite ill—thinking that he is probably nearing his own death—when he hears funeral bells ringing. This causes him to ponder the interconnectedness of life and how suffering brings each man closer to God.
Donne notes that people are "translated" (cross from living into the afterlife with God) by various means: old age, sickness, justice, or war. But God's hand is behind each translation. He also notes that the baptism or death of any person in God's Church affects more than that one person, as each person is connected to the head and body of the Church: the experience of one affects all.
Donne returns to this idea in the famous line "No man is an island, entire of itself." He notes that each piece of dirt in Europe is still part of the European continent. He follows with another famous line that one should never ask for whom the bell tolls because "it tolls for thee."
In conclusion, Donne notes that serious illness is a treasure, because it brings the sufferer closer and closer to God, and a great perspective is gained about things that are truly important in life through suffering. By taking note of the pains of others—even those pains that take the lives of those around us—we can gain clarity about life itself and of our relationship with God.
This meditation is an often-referenced collection of thoughts that were important to Donne as he neared the end of his own life. He saw the importance of human connections on Earth and how those connections are vital to the human experience. And he also points out that much can be gained from the wisdom of those who are close to dying, as they have a clarity that the healthy often do not.