Although the subject matter of "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning- could be applied to any couple pending separation, John Donne wrote his poem for his wife on the eve of his departure for France in 1611. In the poem, the speaker pleads with his lady to accept his departure. The speaker defines and celebrates a love that transcends the physical and can therefore endure and even grow through separation. In arguing against mourning and emotional upheaval, Donne uses a series of bold and unexpected comparisons for the love between the speaker and his lady.
Donne makes his first surprising analogy in the first stanza when he compares the impending separation of the lovers to death. The speaker compares his parting from his lover of the soul from virtuous man at death. According to the speaker, "virtuous men pass mildly away- because the virtue in their lives has assured them of glory and reward in the afterlife; hence, they die in peace without fear and emotion (1). He suggests that the separation of the lovers be like this separation caused by death. In the second stanza the speaker furthers his comparison for a peaceful separation. "So let us melt, and make no noise- refers to the melting of gold by a goldsmith or alchemist (5). When gold is melted it does not sputter and is therefore quiet. The speaker and his love should not display their private, intimate love as "tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move- (6). The speaker thinks that it would be a "profanation- to reveal the sacred love he shares with his lady (7). It would be similar to priests revealing the mysteries of their faith to "the laity-, that is, to ordinary people (8). The loud display of grief upon separation would therefore desecrate the sacred love the speaker and his lady to the less elevated love of ordinary people. .
The second stanza introduces another category of startling comparative images, referring to the motions or changes of the earth and spheres.
Metaphysical poetry essay In the poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, John puts in each verse, his insights on the condition of each human of love and the relation to the soul through the conceit, of drawing compasses. ... The author uses the poem Valediction to make his statement which like proof. ...
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning In the poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,"" the author, John Donne, creates a dichotomy between the common love of the everyday world and the uncommon love of the speaker. Essentially, this is a poem that forms a sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing a way of looking at the separation between two lovers and how they will avoid the mourning forbidden by the poem's title. ... Knowing this, he dies in peace and calm, and those who mourning his death are sad but not anguished. ... Donne says that the people who are mourning for...
He then refers to spiritual love as the purer and stronger form of love which can be seen in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, which subsequently implies that spiritual love is the higher form of love. However, in The Ecstasy Donne says that the uniting of the souls in spiritual love can only be attained through a uniting of the bodies, this idea somewhat contradicts the points Donne makes about love in To His Mistress Going to Bed and Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. ... In contrast with To His Mistress Going to Bed is Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, in which Donne greatly emphasizes th...
William Shakespeare's "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," also known as "Sonnet 116" discusses love, as does John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." ... John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is a farewell poem that calls for no weeping, "So let us melt, and make no noise. ...
John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" is a poem from one lover to another upon their parting. ... Although death is mentioned in the opening line, setting the tone of death and mourning, it is not a violent portrayal of death. ... In addition, the image of tears, sighs and noise are associated with the public mourning of a death. ... This is the central idea of the poem, and the latter half is composed of two metaphors used to illustrate their love and justify the forbiddance of mourning. ... The speaker conceits that although it does not call for mourning, the parting ...
The main theme that all three works share eases a reader's mind by explaining that death or separation from a loved one (in the case of "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning") is only temporary. ... In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", the issue of death isn't directly addressed, but the main idea still applies. ...
