a Valediction Forbidding Mourning John Donne John Donnes biographer Izaak Walton reports that Donne wrote this poem to his wife Anne in 1611 before leaving for France for a period of two months. Anne was pregnant at the time and had a premonition of impending tragedy, which proved to be correct. The child was born dead. According to Walton, while Donne was in France he had a vision of his wife walking across the bedroom with a dead infant in her arms. A valediction is a farewell message. Since 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. John Donnes poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning was published after his death in 1633. It has nine quatrains. One quatrain is a stanza that consists of four lines. It is written in iambic pentameter, and is a beautiful love poem. The title appears to reflect the content of the piece: a farewell. The poem is written in traditional conge damour, a consolation upon separation of lovers. It begins with an image of men passing away, dying. The separation of body and soul is gentle that friends surrounding the dying and dead are unable to tell if they are alive or dead. The poem reads that the lovers should depart without noise for fear of revealing the quality of the love to the ignorant. That is the first reason to forbid mourning. The second reason to forbid mourning was offered in a comparative and contrasting metaphor. When there is an earthquake, small cracks form in the ground; people regard that as ominous, but when planets move apart, though the distance is great, people view that as harmless. The poet uses earthquakes as a metaphor for the separation of lovers. Similar to earthquakes, lovers fear separation because of their composition of sensory and sensual perceptions. However, lovers who are spiritually and physically in love are less troubled by separation. Like the separation of planets, their souls remain one until their bodies are reunited. Another metaphor is given to reinforce that idea: The separation of lovers is similar to gold stretching thin, but not breaking. The last reason is presented by using a compass as a metaphor to describe the interconnectedness between lovers. Although lovers retain their souls, they are divided into two parts, similar to that of a compass. The compass is linked at the top, and works in unison. When the compass draws a circle, one point remains stationary in the center, at a fixed point, which ensures the other will complete its circuit. Similar to a compass, if one of the lovers remains home, it ensures the return of the other. Since the lover will return home, mourning is inappropriate. This poem expresses the vision of loves unifying and godlike power. Love is the center upon which the world revolves, and all things return. The image of the dying men introduces the direction of the piece in its effort towards fusing the poet and lovers body and soul. Next, the planets are used as a metaphor and promises resurrection. The planets in the poets Ptolemaic system describe circles. The metaphor of the twin compasses is where the poet finds that perfect fusion of humanity and divinity, flesh and spirit, line and circle that identifies love as true. The poet moves the reader from death and separation to life and reunion.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 10:10:47 +0000
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