A Valediction Forbidding Mourning Lyric Poem free essay sample

The title of this lyric poem is ‘ A valediction forbidding mourning’ written by John Donne in the first person point of view. The speaker is a man and most likely a saint who would not participate in acts that are profane. A valediction is a farewell message. As seen in the title, forbids his wife from sorrowing over their separation, the poet decides to present reasons why his embassy to France will not occasion grief or anxiety. He accomplishes this through a series of conceits similes and strikingly unusual metaphors. Donne is a metaphysical poet who uses metaphoric conceit in his poems by comparing two incredibly unlike things such as love and demeanors. Death is used as a metaphor in the departure of his wife. First, he compares his separation from his wife to the separation of a mans soul from his body when he dies (first stanza). The body represents physical love; the soul represents spiritual or intellectual love. We will write a custom essay sample on A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Lyric Poem or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page While Donne and his wife are apart, they cannot express physical love; thus, they are like the body of a dead being.. However, Donne says, they remain united spiritually because their souls are one. So, Donne continues, he and his wife should let their physical bond melt when they part (line 5). He follows that metaphor with others, saying they should not cry sentimental tear-floods or indulge in sigh-tempests (line 6) when they say farewell. Such base sentimentality would cheapen their relationship. He also compares himself and his wife to celestial spheres, for their love is so profound that it exists in a higher plane than the love of husbands and wives whose relationship centers solely on physical pleasures where they require to remain together, physically Finally, Donne compares his relationship with his wife to that of the two legs of a drawing compass. Although the legs are separate components of the compass, they are both part of the same object. If the outer leg traces a circle, the inner leg–though its point is fixed at the center–must pivot in the direction of the outer leg. Thus, Donne says, though he and his wife are separated, like the legs of the compass, they remain united because they are part of the same soul. The first two quatrains can be misleading since they discuss the way virtuous men die. However, the deaths referred to are a figurative element of a simile and not a literal reference to the poets death. Donnes message is Let our parting from each other be as quiet and imperceptible as the departure of the souls from the bodies of the virtuous, for whom heavenly bliss is expected and deserved. His prohibition against tear-floods and sigh-tempests refers to Donnes earlier poem Of Weeping, where we find Till thy tears mixed with mine do overflow/ This world. . .. And further on Since thou and I sigh one anothers breath/ Whoer sighs most, is cruelest, and hastes the others death. Hyperbole was a hallmark of poetry of the courtly love tradition. Donne is poking fun at the idea that one could shed tears sufficient to cause a flood or sigh so deeply that the atmospheric disturbance would cause a storm or hurricane. The second quatrains conclusion T’were profanation of our joys/ To tell the laity our love makes a distinction between true lovers who are ordained membe rs of a priesthood and ordinary lovers who are members of the congregation (laity) and not of the clergy. His term profanation means granting admittance of the unworthy into the shrine reserved for priests and priestesses of love. Assonance of short u sounds in each word of the first line of the forth stanza reinforces the concept of stupidity (dullness) of earthly lovers whose amorous attachments depend on physical sensation. This culminates in the brilliant pun on absence, which means not just being elsewhere but lacking the fleshly propinquity and sentience of eyes, lips, and hands mentioned in the subsequent quatrain. The love of the laity is dependent upon things, or body parts. Such love is rudimentary, basic, and carnal. But we by a love so much refined,/That ourselves know not what it is,/ Inter-assured of the mind/ Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. The poem concludes with the employment of two conceits or super-ingenious metaphors. The departure of the poet is not a breach or separation but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat. And finally their conjoined souls are a pair of compasses. Anne at home is the fixed foot and leans in the direction of the traveling foot, steadying it and assuring that it will come full circle. (And yes, there is a sexual aspect to and grows erect. ) Donne compares the love he shares with his wife to a compass. (Stanza 7 of the poem). Mockery of idealized, sentimental romantic poetry, as in Stanza 2 of the poem. Gross exaggeration (hyperbole). .. In the sixth stanza, Donne begins a paradox, noting that his and his wifes souls are one though they be two; therefore, their souls will always be together even though they are apart. Stanza 6 also presents a simile, comparing the expansion of their souls to the expansion of beaten gold. .. Donne also uses alliteration extensively. Following are examples: Whilst some of their sad friends do say (line 3) Dull sublunary lovers love (line 13) (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit (line 14) That our selves know not what it is, (line 18) Our two souls therefore, which are one (line 21) Thy soul, the fixe d foot, makes no show Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end where I begun (lines 35-36) The rhyme scheme in the poem is ABAB. End rhyme occurs in the first and third lines of each stanza and in the second and fourth lines. The meter is iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four feet) per line. Each foot, or pair of syllables, consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Donne’s fascination with spheres rests partly on the perfection of these shapes and partly on the near-infinite associations that can be drawn from them. Like other metaphysical poets, Donne used conceits to extend analogies and to make thematic connections between otherwise dissimilar objects. He uses the motif of spheres to move from a description of the world to a description of globes to a description of his beloved’s eyes to a description of their perfect love. Rather than simply praise his beloved, the speaker compares her to a faultless shape, the sphere, which contains neither corners nor edges. As the speaker cries, each tear contains a miniature reflection of the beloved, yet another instance in which the sphere demonstrates the idealized personality and physicality of the person being addressed. Perhaps the most famous conceit in the metaphysical poetry- the compass symbolizes the relationship between lovers: two separate but joined bodies. The symbol of the compass is another instance of Donne’s using the language of voyage and conquest to describe relationships between and feelings of those in love. Compasses, metaphorically, help lovers stay linked across physical distances or absences. In â€Å"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,† the speaker compares his soul and the soul of his beloved to a so-called twin compass. A twin compass has two legs, one that stays fixed and one that moves. In the poem, the speaker becomes the movable leg, while his beloved becomes the fixed leg. According to the poem, the jointure between them, and the steadiness of the beloved, allows the speaker to trace a perfect circle while he is apart from her. Although the speaker can only trace this circle when the two legs of the compass are separated, the compass can eventually be closed up, and the two legs pressed together again, after the circle has been traced.