FREE ESSAY ON A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING

A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING

Intro to Poetry
Oct 10 2000
Interpretation of 
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Although that it may seem that the meaning of A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning could be
applied to any couple awaiting separation, according to Izaak Walton, a
seventeenth-century biographer, John Donne wrote his poem for his wife, Anne Donne, right
before his departure for France in 1611 (Damrosch 238). However, even though the poem is
not written to an audience, many of us can learn from what Donne is trying to convey to
his wife. In the poem, Donne pleads with his lady to accept his departure. He defines and
celebrates a love that transcends the physical realm and expresses that their love can
therefore survive and even grow through their separation. 
In arguing against mourning and emotional confusion, Donne uses a series of bold and
unexpected comparisons for the love between himself and his lady. Donne makes his first
surprising analogy in the first stanza when he compares the approaching separation of the
lovers to death. "he 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 happiness
in the afterlife; therefore, they die in peace without fear and emotion. By this he
suggests that the separation of the lovers is parrallel to the separation caused by
death. 
In the second stanza Donne furthers his comparison for a peaceful separation. "So let us
melt, and make no noise" (line 5). The word "melt" implies a change in the physical state
of love. The physical bond that he and his wife have will dissolve quietly like the soul
of a dying man from his body. "Noise" refers to the "tear floods" that he does not want
his love to release. The speaker and his love should not display their private, intimate
love as "tear-floods" (tears), nor "sigh-tempests move" (breaths of air), (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. If they would publicly
display their grief upon their separation he feels it would therefore defile the sacred
love of him and his wife to be no better than the love of ordinary people. 
The third stanza introduces another category of surprising comparative images, referring
to the motions or changes of the earth and spheres. Earthquakes are perceived by almost
everyone as often as a sign of misfortune. It is understandable that many fear
earthquakes because of the damage they may cause to property and land; wheras a
"trepidation of the spheres" would be viewed by many ,because they don't know what it is,
to have no apparent meaning. However, in order to understand the true meaning of this
third quatrain of the poem, it is necessary to consider the Ptolemaic Universe and the
symbolism Donne used by the sphere. Donne was a very well-educated man who studied famous
thinkers such as Aristotle and Ptolemy, and their views of the universe. During the
Middle Ages and the Elizabethan Age, philosophers views of the circle and sphere were
looked upon by many as perfect shapes. The main influence behind this thinking may have
been due to Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, who believed that the heavens were not
straight or finite, but rather circular and eternal and were therefore perfect or
divine(reflecting the perfection of God). They also believed that everything sublunary
(below the moon), things that are on this earth, were imperfect, subject to deacy and
death. Donne also lived in a time where everyone excepted the Ptolemaic theory of the
universe, which stated that the planets moved in an orbit around the earth in concentric
cirlcles annd that the universe was attached to spheres of crystal that often moved or
shook. So in the third quatrain when Donne compares the fears and harms of earthquakes to
the "trepidation of the spheres" as being innocent, he is contrasting the the love of
ordinary people which is not divine and subject to decay, to the love of him and his lady
which is divine. So when disturbances happen between their love, if he leaves, it will be
like the far-off trembling of in the heavens and will be "innocent" and have no major
bearin on their relationship.(Damrosch 238-239)
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 is not mature and depends on the physical act of love, which
cannot occur in the absense of each other. Donnne explains that the refined and mature
love between he and his love doesn't need the presence of the physical body because it is
"Inter-assured of the mind" and "care lesse, eyse, lips and hands to misse "(line 19). He
is saying that he and his wife are connected at the soul and are therefore never really
going to be separated even though their phsycial precense will be apart from each other.

In the sixth stanza, Donne 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 above earthly faults, 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 for of us to
learn from, the huge apparent differences bring the mortal love between the speaker and
his lady to a level of perfection and no journey can ever break that. 
Works Cited
Damrosch, L. Adventures in English Literature. New York: Harcourt 
Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1985. 
Donne, John. "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." The Harbrace 
Anthology of Literature. Ed. 
Scott,Jon C. Toronto: Harcourt Brace & Comp., 1994. 99-101.