A+Valediction+Forbidding+Mourning

__Vici-__

 A Valediction Forbidding Mourning - A form of farewell forbidding mourning · The title is very literal: a farewell that does not deserve to/should not be mourned - Metaphysical conceit of a compass which explores the experience of lovers parting: most discussed image in Donne’s kind of poetry (apart from perhaps the flea) · The compass is together then it is torn apart: they are together then separated but will come back together · Is this use of conceit absurd or not? ( we can always talk about this idea with Donne’s poetry ) o No not really it’s quite logical · New way of looking at it: we can all imagine a compass in front of us and see the separation and coming together Donne discusses even though we may not have experienced a situation like the lovers’ separation - Very potent and serious poem

Themes - Calm and beautiful death = calm and beautiful love: analogy · Not only their parting but also their love · There should be a sense of virtue to the parting: if the love is more than physical the parting should be more gentle and virtuous - He doesn’t want conventional or normal departure à their love is beyond that · they’re love is so special he does not want normal reactions “no tearfloods” · Floods of tears =shallow type of parting, he wants more than that · Their love is sacred à the normality of such reactions would take away the sacred nature of their love o If love is so sacred why involve others in parting through a public show of loss “tearfloods” (airport idea) o //“But we have a love so refined…we know not what it is//” à love is something beyond us that we can’t even understand

Language - ‘Donnesque’ grammar of the first two stanza’s throws reader off · AS… SO = just like…. then we should · Just as virtuous men die gently and pass away very gently we should depart in a similar manner; calmly “in a whisper”, “the breath” - “No”; some of the friends do not even know that he has gone · Narrator’s departure should also go unnoticed? Should not let it impact lovers’ life too much… · They don’t even know that their friend has passed: eternal life, eternal love à idea of circles - A silence surrounding the poem · “sigh” “whisper”, “breath” à quiet and gentle expulsion of noise à GENTLE DEPARTING · “Sigh tempest” à storms of sighing - As, so, but à conjunctions, transitioning into other parts of argument · Often use connectives when you explain something calmly and cohesively to someone · He has written this for his lover but also for the readers who perhaps do not understand their love: we need childish, patient explanation

Character - Narrator · Very convincing: use of imperative and rhetoric · Comparison between Flea persona: persuasive with a sense of honesty which the flea persona doesn’t

Imagery - 3rd stanza · Movement of earth brings harms and fears alludes to earthquakes that bring a sense of fear · However the natural movement of the earth is fast à why be frightened of things like earthquakes when we are actually moving far/fast constantly due to earth’s orbit · Why should we fear this parting because we are moving all the time: this is not a sudden parting but is very much in line with the movement of the earth: rhythmic, gentle - Continued link to planets: they are not like sublunary lovers that are bound to earth; they are not earthly or restricted to earth; their love contains the entire universe - “//care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss”//// à // physical separation is not enough to break them - “But an expansion, like gold to airly thinnes beat” · Their love will expand like gold · Donne uses metal in the sun rising, gold = sun light · Gold had the most magnificent connotations at the time the poem was written · Beat à perhaps the beating of a heart?? (may be too far-fetched) - Conceit: compass metaphor at the end · They are separated but united o //“if they be two, they are two”// à if their souls are not one but separated then still their love is strong, counter argues himself as he previously said they are one but is showing his lover that either way their love is strong o Souls are co-joined and move at the same time, together · May seem a little bit absurd · “stiff” “erect” à firmness & firmness of love · Compass evokes idea that the lovers’ love is in the center (reminiscent of the Sun Rising) - “Thy firmness makes my circle just” · The fortitude and dedication in our love completes me, makes me rounded · It is as if he is urging moral strength upon his lover throughout the poem

__Luke-__

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

The poem tells the story of two lovers parting, but with the narrator urging his lover not to mourn the separation because he will be coming back, that the love shared between them can last it.

First stanza:

“As virtuous men pass mildly away,” – the narrator tells that lovers should part with as much virtue as the death of virtuous men. The parting will be painfully, but it should be taken stoically. -Death is described as beautifully calm.

Second Stanza:

“So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;” – Donne is alluding to the previous stanza. Note the use of “tear-floods”, nor “sigh-tempests”, hyphenated nouns which provide a sad sense to the separation. “T’were profanation of our joys to tell the laity of our love” –their love is so strong that they don’t need to show any physical aspects of it, that they’re beyond that. To show emotion would be to reduce their love to the level of others. Their love is sacred, to cry would take away the sacred nature of their love. Donne’s love is above the common man.

Third Stanza:

“Moving of th’earth brings harms and fears” alludes to earthquakes? “But trepidation of the spheres, though greater far, is innocent”. Why be frightened about earthquakes and moving far (parting) when we are moving anyways?

Fourth Stanza

“Dull sublunary lovers’ love” earthly changeable – Donne is referring to the fact that they aren’t bound to the earth and moon, like people on Earth. “whose soul is sense” predominantly physical love—such a type of love cannot withstand a physical absence.

Fifth Stanza

“But we by a love so refined that ourselves know not what it is” –mystery of love, “Interassuréd of the mind, care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss” –physical separation isn’t important, because their love can last it.

Sixth Stanza:

“Our souls therefore, which are one, though I must go, endure not yet” – pathos “A breach, but an expansion, like gold to aery thinness beat” –their love will expand like gold.

Seventh Stanza:

Donne portrays the lovers as a pair of compasses, separated but yet united, which is the metaphysical conceit.

Eighth Stanza:

"And through it in the centre sit, Yet when the other doth roam, it leans and hearkens after it, and grows erect as that comes home" --there is an idea of the two compasses following each other, wherever they would go.

Ninth Stanza:

“Thy firmness makes my circle just and makes me end where I begun” – Your strength and love make me balanced, rounded. There are sexual connotations, “Stiff”, “Grows erect”, “firmness”. There is a lot of circular imagery and cycles in the poem, such as the sun and the earth, the narrator’s argument, the narrator leaving and coming back, to provide a feeling of completeness and coming full circle.