John Donne

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John Donne

• A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

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Valediction

• A farewell or a goodbye

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Stanza 1

• As virtuous men pass mildly away,      And
  whisper to their souls to go,  Whilst some of
  their sad friends do say,     "Now his breath
  goes," and some say, "No."

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Introduction of a simile

• 1st half of the simile is presented
• Comparing the death of virtuous men to something

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Imagery

• Death of Virtuous Men
• Mild
• Do not make it public
• Mildly away
• whisper

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Stanza 2

• So let us melt, and make no noise,                
        No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move
  'Twere profanation of our joys     To tell the
  laity our love

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Completion of Simile

• Comparing the death of virtuous men to the
  speaker and his wifes separation.
• Virtuous men die peacefully and silently
• No tear-floods sigh-tempest move

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Imagery

• Describes how they should separate
• They must part but their love is stronger,
  sacred
• melt
• make no noise

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Religious Imagery

• Laity
• Indicates their love is of a spiritual nature

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Diction

• Profanation
• Profane
• Irreverent
• Irreligious
• Disrespectful
• It would be profane to tell the laity of our
  love
• Would they not understand

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Stanza 3

• Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears    
  Men reckon what it did, and meantBut
  trepidation of the spheres,     Though greater
  far, is innocent. 

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Stanza 3

• When they separate, they shake the earth with
  their sorrows
• Lovers are all physical
• Cannot separate without losing the the sensation
  that sustains their love
• Tone
• Not complementary

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Stanza 4

• Dull sublunary lovers' love     Whose soul is
  sensecannot admit  Of absence, 'cause it doth
  remove          The thing which elemented it.

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Stanza 4

• Continues his discussion of the laity
• Suggests their souls are centered a deeper
  connection
• Their relationships are defined by physical
  presence
• If absence occurs, the relationship is
  eliminated
• - A perfect circle of love

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Stanza 4

• Vocabulary
• Dull
• - Boring
• Sublunary
• - Between the moon and earth worldly
• The laity of love is of the earth, while their
  love is heavenly
• Tone
• - Not complementary

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Stanza 5

• But we by a love so much refined,    That
  ourselves know not what it is, Inter-assurèd of
  the mind,     Care less, eyes, lips and hands to
  miss.

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Change in perspective

• Instead of talking about the sacredness of their
  love, he now begins to define his love.
• Our love is not defined by the senses, therefore
  our love is not affected by absence.

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Imagery

• Senses
• - eyes, lips, hands
• Mental Imagery
• - Refined
• - Purified

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Stanza 6

• Our two souls therefore, which are one,    
  Though I must go, endure not yet  A breach, but
  an expansion,     Like gold to aery thinness
  beat.

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Paradox

• A seemingly contradictory statement that
  presents a profound truth
• - Two souls are one

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Continuation of metal imagery

• Expansion
• Gold
• Aery thinness beat
• Gold leaf
• - gold that is beaten out into very thin sheets
  and used for gilding and lettering
• - they are not enduring a breach rather
  experiencing an expansion

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Stanza 7

• If they be two, they are two so    As stiff twin
  compasses are two   Thy soul, the fix'd foot,
  makes no show     To move, but doth, if th'
  other do.

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Conceit

• An extended metaphor
• - Compares love to legs of a compass
• One point remains fixed and the other circles
  it
• They are a pair of compasses two separate arms
  joined at the center to create a perfect circle,
  like their love

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Stanza 8

• And though it in the centre sit,     Yet, when
  the other far doth roam,It leans, and hearkens
  after it,     And grows erect, as that comes
  home.
• As the other foot moves, the center foot leans
  after it

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Stanza 9

• Such wilt thou be to me, who must,    Like th'
  other foot, obliquely run Thy firmness makes
  my circle just,    And makes me end where I
  begun. 
• The center foot is responsible for making the
  circle perfect
• A perfect circle has no beginning and no end
• Causes him to return home