FREE ESSAY ON A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING

A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
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 to the parting of the soul from a virtuous man at
death. According to the speaker, "virtuous men pass mildly away" (line 1) 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. 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" (line 5) refers
to the melting of gold by a goldsmith or alchemist. 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" (line 6). The speaker
thinks that it would be a "profanation" (line 7) to reveal the sacred love he shares with
his lady. It would be similar to priests revealing the mysteries of their faith to "the
laity" (line 8), that is, to ordinary people. The loud display of grief upon separation
would therefore desecrate the sacred love of 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. Donne's contemporaries believed that the heavens were perfect(reflecting the
perfection of God). Everything "sublunary"-- below the moon, on this earth -- was
imperfect, subject to decay and death. Furthermore, the planets moving in orbit around
the earth in the geocentric, earth-centred Ptolemaic view of the universe were attached
to spheres of crystal that often moved or shook (Damrosch et al. 238-9). In line 6, the
"tear-floods" and "sigh-tempests move" refers to the moving of the earth. In the third
stanza, the speaker again refers to the unrefined love of ordinary people in contrast
with the love between he and his lady. The upheavals in the lives of ordinary lovers on
earth are earthquakes ("Moving of th'earth") that bring "harms and fears" (line 9). In
contrast, in a more refined love such as that between the speaker and his lady, any
disturbance is above the reach of such earthly upheavals. It is like the far-off
trembling in the heavens. It is as if their love resided in the heavens, among the
crystal spheres of the Ptolemaic universe. Even when there is "trepidation" or trembling
of the spheres, it is "innocent" -- it will cause no harm or damage in the world below
(lines 11-12). Donne continues to refer to the Ptolemaic universe in the fourth and fifth
stanzas. In the fourth stanza, ordinary earth-bound lovers are caught up in the physical
presence of the other person, which like all material things in this "sublunary" sphere
below the moon, is subject to change and decay (line 13). Their "soul is sense" and
"cannot admit absense" (lines 14-15) because the only way to express their love is
through their five senses. Their relationship depends on the physical act of love, which
cannot occur in the absense of each other. The speaker explains that the refined love
between he and his love doesn't need the presence of the physical body because it is
"Inter-assured of the mind" (line 19). The speaker and his lady are connected at the soul
and are therefore not really separated. In the sixth stanza, Donne again compares love to
gold. Pure gold can be beaten into a layer of the thinnest gold leaf that stretches
incredibly far without breaking. The speaker explains here that since the love between he
and his wife is pure and precious like gold, it can also be expanded and stretched
without a "breach" (line 23). Here, the speaker means that although he will be far away,
the love between he and his lady will not break because it is so pure. Donne's most
famous and unusual comparison starts in the seventh stanza and concludes his poem when he
compares the love between he and his wife to "stiff twin compasses" (line 26). The twin
compasses are described as two only in the sense that there are two legs joined
permanently at the top. Here Donne is refering to the mathematical instrument used in
geometry. One leg, "the fixed foot" (line 27), is planted firmly in the centre. The other
"travels," describing a perfect circle, returning to its point of origin. The "fixed
foot" of the centre foot "leans and harkens" after the other that "far doth roam"
(25-30). The speaker explains that the centre foot (the person who stays at home) makes
sure the absent lover comes back to form a complete circle because of its firmness. In
the last stanza, the speaker explains that the firmness of the love of his lady will make
him come back to where he began. Furthermore, the circle created by the journey of the
compass was the symbol of perfection in Donne's time because just like God and eternity,
it has no beginning and no end. This use of the circle in Donne's poem suggests the
perfection of the love between he and his wife. In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,
Donne describes a most perfect and unchangeable love between two people. Throughout the
poem he skillfully compares the love of the speaker and his lady to things that seem
completely different to the love between them. Whether Donne wrote his poem for his wife
or just touched a universal theme, the huge apparent differences bring the mortal love
between the speaker and his lady to a level of perfection above earthly faults.