Theory question 111
Non-African PoetryLiterature 2, Section D: Non-African Poetry
Discuss the development of the theme of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”.
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John Donne's speaker, about to travel, tells his beloved not to mourn their parting.
Opens with the image of virtuous men dying quietly: the lovers should part as calmly, with no 'tear-floods' or 'sigh-tempests'.
Contrasts 'dull sublunary lovers', whose love depends on the body and cannot bear absence, with their own refined, spiritual love.
Their souls are one, so parting is not a breach but an 'expansion', like gold beaten to airy thinness.
Ends with the conceit of a pair of compasses: she is the fixed foot, he the moving one; her firmness makes his circle complete and brings him back.
The theme, that true spiritual love survives separation, develops through a logical argument and a series of images.
Follow the poem from start to end.