Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne Understanding

¶ … VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING by John Donne Understanding and analyzing Donne's poetry involves an appreciation of his particular literary style. His poetry is usually known as "metaphysical" due to the use of conceits. Conceits are extended metaphors which are a complex form of the metaphor. A metaphor is a forced comparison between two things that are usually different or unlike. Donne's poetry is also characterized by the use of argument and logic. This is particularly the case with the poem under discussion: A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.

The central argument that runs throughout the poem is that while the poet or protagonist is going to be separated from his mistress or lover, their love will endure his departure. The entire poem is an elaborate proof that physical separation is not final and that true love cannot be changed, altered or destroyed by physical distance. In order to prove this point the poet links the concept of love to that of the soul. The soul is more permanent than the body.

Therefore love can endure separation if it is similar to the soul. The poem is a series of logical proofs of this argument beginning with the idea of the most extreme form of separation: namely death. In the very first stanza the poem introduces the idea of the separation of the body and the soul. This is an attempt to define and explain the quality of the love that the protagonist has for his mistress.

As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go This central concept of the separation of the body and soul is used throughout the poem as an argument for the permanence of love. The poet states that while body and soul are separated at death the soul is permanent and does not need the body to exist eternally. This central concept of body soul division is an important part of the argument that must be accepted for the rest of the poem to work logically.

This central argument is expressed in the stanza beginning on line 21. 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. The poet argues that the lover souls are intertwined and are "one." This means that the soul unlike the body does not die but is eternal. This therefore implies that their love is also eternal and consequently cannot be harmed by death or separation.

Following from this argument, the poet states that his departure from his love is not a "breach" or a destruction of the relationship but rather an "expansion" of their love. The metaphor that he uses to describe the enduring quality of their love is the quality of gold which can be extended in thin layers without losing any of its inherent value. By implication this means that although they may be separated, their love will still be retained.

Previously the poet has used other metaphors to prepare for this central idea. For example the use of "melt" in stanza two suggests that their love or relationship is like a liquid which cannot be separated. In stanza six (line 25) the poet continues to expand on his central argument 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.

In this stanza the poet states that if he and his lover are to be seen as separate people, their difference is akin to a compass. This is a metaphor or conceit which attempts to relate their love to the qualities of this mathematical instrument. The idea is that while a compass has two separate points or "legs" they are both joined by the central fulcrum of the instrument. In other words, while the compass has separate points it is at the same time seen as a single entity.

Furthermore, as the poet states in lines 27 and 28, the two points or sides of the compass are linked in their movement: as the one side moves so it influences the other side. Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do. This metaphorical comparison is made to conform to the central idea of the poem; namely that there can be no final separation between the two lovers. Like the image of the soul, they are eternally joined by their love.

The poet extends this metaphor in the last two stanzas of the poem 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. 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 first stanza referenced above refers again to the idea of the separation between the two lovers as.