As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"The breath goes now," and some say, "No:"
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears;
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refin'd,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
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 the' other do.
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.
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From guest Waylan (contact)
This is a very abstract love poem... He compares a simple compass to his love for his wife. He says "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 the' other do." She moves when he does, and only when he does. And then: "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." If she stays still, and not follow him when he leaves, their "circle" of love will be perfect; if she can bear him leaving and not "move". He also says how when he dies, their love will not break, but expand: "Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat." I find this a very true poem, that most people may not understand. If -
From guest Sarah Khayal (contact)
When loved ones pass away, people do wonder where their souls may have gone. Do their souls go far away,or do they stay right on earth with the living? "Valediction, Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne is a wonderful poem that really makes people wonder about the dead. When I read this poem for Donne, I found its subject matter is the easiest one to be understood. I personally believe that this poem is about love and the eternity of love. The speaker is telling his loved one that even though he is departing, he will still be with her. Their souls will be together and never separate. People do not understand the meaning of love and think little of it, but the speaker and his relationship is much stronger than the rest of the other relationships in the world. Theirs will hold together and never die. Death should not be thought of as an end , but as a beginning to something greater. Much like other metaphysical poems, it consists of metaphysical conceits and, of course, it is divided up in a comparison between their love and others. I was strucked by the witty and the unusual conceit which is used throughout the poem by Donne, particularly, when he compares his soul and his lover's sooul with gold which can be expanded when it's beaten, then he goes on to talk about the compass which forms a circle, a circle could be a symbol of the unity between the two of them, also it could be a symbol of a WEDDING RING which is made from GOLD. In conclusion,"A Valediction: forbidding Mourning" is one of Donne's most famous and simplest poems and also probably his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual and iternal love which is not affected by death or other things which could affect the relationships between common people. -
This is my favorite poem. I get chills everytime I read it
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John Donne’s A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING
Walton’s Life of Donne says that this farewell poem was given by Donne to Anne More, his wife, when he left for France in 1611. However, the poem compares the parting of the two persons with death.
The 1st stanza puts the parting of the lovers in a holy context. The persons parting from this world are virtuous men. The dying persons and their friends do haste. This implies the bliss of the world hereafter for the parting ones.
The lovers are, nevertheless, too securely united for protestations and commotion to be in place. They separate with no noise; they shed no tears, and they don’t regret the loss at all. If they were to talk about their love to others, it would be profanation.
The earthquakes bring harm and fear, and they put the people into thinking of the consequent horrors. However, the motions of the outer spheres cause no harms, although they are much greater than the earth. So parting which brings about only such movement in their love need not be dreaded.
The foolish and stupid love of the lovers is subject to interception, as the sea under the moon is subject to ebb and flow. In that sort of love the senses attempt to rule, and the separation cannot be tolerated because that takes away the very elements (in sense and appetite) that make up such love.
In contrast to those profane lovers, the speaker and his beloved have made their love resort to the true nature of love that is even incomprehensive to them. These lovers are made safe each by the other and guaranteed mutual understanding and possession. They suffer less from not being able to see and touch one another.
The two souls of the lovers, which have become one, will bear no separation; instead, the breach will be a blow on them to get expanded in the same way that the gold is expanded through beating.
The 7th stanza introduces the image of a compass with two legs. The two legs are separated from each other to draw a circle, which is an emblem of perfection. The soul of the beloved is the fixed leg and the lover is the moving leg. The movement of the lover-leg is in harmony with the situation at hand.
The fixed leg of the compass sits in the center of the circle, but it inclines toward the moving leg as if it listened attentively when it runs round the fixed one. The fixed leg becomes upright again when the other one draws closer and approaches as though in ease and content and happy expectation. The suggestion of getting united after the separation is implied by the legs of a compass getting folded.
The last stanza can be read either as the completion of a circle or of the closing of the compass when its task is done. Each seems equally relevant. Circles are emblematic of perfection. In Plato’s Timaeus, well known for Donne, the Creator gave the world, as the fairest and most perfect of intelligent beings, the form of a globe. Moreover, the circle is the emblem of the soul’s proper course.
The two final lines are saying that it is her steadfastness that makes the courses of his soul be as they should be and makes him in the end return whence he begun. The word ‘begun’ echoes the thought of the title. The speaker forbids his beloved to mourn after he has gone.
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This poem uses an extended metaphor, or a 'conceit'(the compass)
Donne uses the idea of lovers souls being interlinked and unending, despite distance.
The last 2 lines sum up what Donne wants to say. That love helps us end where we begin, right beside our lover.Donne had to travel away from his wife, and thats why it;s widely thought that he wrote this poem. To reassure her.
''So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move''
This could be her in floods of uncontrollable hysterics.,,
I like it. -
I love that...the metaphor of the compass...
"But we by a love so much refin'd,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat."
Very sweet...almost as if love was made large by seperation...
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Great poem and so real
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Naren says this poem has all the important things, & that I will enjoy very much reading it more in the future; I shall.
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