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¶ … Marriage in "Daystar" and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
The circle is the symbol of eternity, where there is no beginning and no end. As with life, love can also be considered an eternal journey, but viewed from different perspectives in the poems "Daystar" (795-796), by Rita Dove, and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (51-52; "Valediction"), by John Donne. The unity of marriage in "Valediction" is prized, with symbolic images of metaphysical elements and circles used to depict the perfection of lovers and an undying love. "Daystar," however, describes the ritual of marriage and the timeless monotony of the burdens that marriage presents. Thus, marriage can be premised in perfection, as in "Valediction," but the cycle of the commitment between two lovers, like in "Daystar," can be stagnant during the journey.
Valediction" shows the parallel between the circle of life and death, and the relationship between lovers, whom must eventually leave each other as they had met. In the image of the circle, "Thy firmness makes my circle just" (l. 35), establishes...
The metaphysical comparison between the mourning of a dying man and the separation of two lovers before a journey further complements the metaphor that love is timeless, but with a physical beginning and end. Donne writes, "So let us melt and make no noise" (l. 5), implying the quiet separation between man and his soul, or the division in a love relationship. While "Dull sublunary lovers' love" (l. 13), a metaphysical analysis of immature or imperfect love, is expressed, "But we by a love so much refined...Careless eyes, lips, and hands to miss" (l. 17, 20) shows Donne's sense of pure connection between lovers with fully developed souls. Thus Donne's "Valediction" describes a fantasy love, free of flaws or breaks in the circle, where the purity of the relationship exists between two perfect lovers. Dove's "Daystar" contrasts this image by portraying the realistic relationship between a man and a woman, through the toils and struggles of everyday married life.
The theme of men and women bound in marriage in "Daystar" describes…
Bibliography
Donne, John. "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." Poems of John Donne, Vol. 1. Ed. E.K.
Chambers. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 51-52.
Dove, Rita. "DayStar." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama, 3rd ed. Eds.
X.J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2003. 795-796.
The Holy Sonnet 'Death be not Proud' (Complete Poetry 283-4) seems to show Donne's mind grappling anew with the reality of death in the wake of his wife's demise. The form of the poem gives an impression of thinking aloud, as if the reader overhears the poet's thoughts as he engages directly with death in an attempt both to cut it down to size and to understand its true nature
John Donne's "The Canonization" begins relatively simply, as a familiar lyrical ode to his mistress. Gradually it deepens in meaning while approaching the final verses, where Donne reveals the true complexity of his vision of love. "The Canonization" is undoubtedly still a love poem; it revels in theatrical descriptions of the love he and his beloved share. But there are also many layers of meaning and irony behind the words
She is to remain quiet and calm, trusting the necessity and inevitability of the speaker's leaving. The second and third strong images in the poem concern the love connection between the couple. The poet uses gold as a metaphor for the pliability and expanding properties of the couple's love. When gold is beaten, it bends and expands; it does not break. In the same way, the love between the man
" (Lines 5-7) the metaphor of the poet being like a battered and invaded town that is impinged upon by outsiders yet still strives to let in the saving forces suggests both a medieval castle and the poet's divided alliances between the world (evil) and God (good). The second half of the poem creates further parallels the relationship of the poet to God. The next metaphor, after the castle, suggests that
The conceit or metaphor in extended though an image of the world or globe. The tears become the entire world which encompasses the speaker's life and feelings. So doth each tear, Which thee doth wear, globe, yea world, by that impression grow, (Lines 14-16) This comparison also leads to the insistence in the poem that without each other the two lovers in fact cease to exist and that their essential meaning is
The poem emotionally appealing and with such invigorating language, is easily translatable as a sermon. The reader could easily manipulate the tone of the poem with slight incensed articulation by accenting the poem as horrifying, delightful, spiritually persuasive or even amusing tone. Throughout the reading of this sonnet, despite its recognition towards God, the sonnet still mimics the consistency Donne always had in his poetry. Consider the plethora of