This refers to the Seven Sleepers, the Catholic legend of seven Christian children, persecuted for their faith during the reign of the Roman emperor Decius, who fled to the shelter of a cave where they slept for more than 200 years. Donne, one of six or seven children and a baptised Catholic during a time of strong anti-Catholic sentiment from both the populace and the government, would certainly have been familiar with the story.

“And now good morrow to our waking soules, Which watch not one another out of feare- For love, all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room, an every where. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown; Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.”