A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
2015/4/13
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning [1]
1. It is John Donne's another love poem in which the poet holds
the positive attitude towards love. According to the biography
written by Izaak Walton, the poem was written in 1611 when
Donne went to France with Robert Drury, and the poem was
addressed to Donne's wife. There is a touch of melancholy in
the poem, and coincidentally, Donne's wife gave birth to a
dead baby while Donne was in France. The poem contains
nine quatrains of iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme of
each quatrain is a b a b. The title “ A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning ” means “ a farewell: Don't grieve over my
leavetaking. ”
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• As virtuous men pass mildly away [2],
2. pass mildly away:
die peacefully
And whisper to their souls, to go [3],
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
• So let us melt [4], and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move [5],
' Twere profanation [6] of our joys
To tell the laity [7] our love.
3. As men are dying, they
whisper to their souls,
asking the souls to leave
the world with their bodies.
Here the body and the soul
are referring to the poet
and his lover. They two are
as inseparable as the soul
and the body.
• Moving of th' earth [8] brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres [9],
Though greater [10] far, is innocent [11].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• As virtuous men pass mildly away [2],
And whisper to their souls, to go [3],
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
4. let us melt: The love
between the poet and
his lover is so intense
that they melt into each
other.
• So let us melt [4], and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move [5],
' Twere profanation [6] of our joys
To tell the laity [7] our love.
• Moving of th' earth [8] brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres [9],
Though greater [10] far, is innocent [11].
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5. Line 6: The lovers ought to
part like virtuous men
bidding farewell to the
world, without any outward
show of grief. The
exaggerated expressions
“ tear-floods, sightempests ” are Petrarchan
conceits that were popular
during the time of Donne.
move: stir up
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• As virtuous men pass mildly away [2],
And whisper to their souls, to go [3],
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
• So let us melt [4], and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move [5],
' Twere profanation [6] of our joys
6. profanation: blasphemy
To tell the laity [7] our love.
• Moving of th' earth [8] brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
7. laity: one who is not a
clergyman. The poet
here is saying that love
is a sacred thing.
But trepidation of the spheres [9],
Though greater [10] far, is innocent [11].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• As virtuous men pass mildly away [2],
And whisper to their souls, to go [3],
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
• So let us melt [4], and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move [5],
8. Moving of th' earth:
earthquakes. In Donne's time,
earthquakes were believed to
be caused by God's anger
and they were sure to bring
disaster to the world.
' Twere profanation [6] of our joys
To tell the laity [7] our love.
• Moving of th' earth [8] brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres [9],
Though greater [10] far, is innocent [11].
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9. trepidation of the
spheres: libration of the
ninth or crystalline
sphere, which
accounted for the
precession of the
equinoxes. trepidation:
shuddering
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• As virtuous men pass mildly away [2],
And whisper to their souls, to go [3],
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
• So let us melt [4], and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move [5],
' Twere profanation [6] of our joys
To tell the laity [7] our love.
• Moving of th' earth [8] brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres [9],
10. greater: The trepidation of
the spheres is a far greater
happening in nature than
the earthquake.
Though greater [10] far, is innocent [11].
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11. innocent: harmless
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Dull sublunary [12] lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit [13]
Absence, because it [14] doth remove
Those things which elemented it [15].
12. sublunary: below the
moon, i.e., the earthly.
The earthly love is
gross and physical,
more corrupt than the
heaven's.
• But we by a love, so much refined [16],
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured [17] of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss [18].
• Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet [19]
A breach, but an expansion [20],
Like gold to aery thinness beat [21].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Dull sublunary [12] lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit [13]
Absence, because it [14] doth remove
13. Line 14: soul:
essence; sense:
physical; admit:
stand, suffer
Those things which elemented it [15].
• But we by a love, so much refined [16],
14. it: referring to
“ absence ”
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured [17] of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss [18].
• Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet [19]
A breach, but an expansion [20],
Like gold to aery thinness beat [21].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Dull sublunary [12] lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit [13]
Absence, because it [14] doth remove
Those things which elemented it [15].
• But we by a love, so much refined [16],
15. Line 16: those things:
things that are related
to the senses;
elemented: composed;
it: physical love, i.e.,
“ whose soul is sense ”
in Line 14
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured [17] of the mind,
16. refined: purified
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss [18].
• Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet [19]
A breach, but an expansion [20],
Like gold to aery thinness beat [21].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Dull sublunary [12] lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit [13]
Absence, because it [14] doth remove
Those things which elemented it [15].
• But we by a love, so much refined [16],
That our selves know not what it is,
17. Inter-assured:
mutually assured. It
is used to modify
“ we ” in Line 17.
Inter-assured [17] of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss [18].
• Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet [19]
A breach, but an expansion [20],
Like gold to aery thinness beat [21].
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18. Line 20: The normal order
of the sentence is “ Care
less, to miss eyes, lips, and
hands ” , meaning “ we do
not care much to miss eyes,
lips, and hands ” . care less:
careless, modifying “ we ”
in line 17. Eyes, lips, and
12
hands are referring to all
kinds of senses.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Dull sublunary [12] lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit [13]
Absence, because it [14] doth remove
Those things which elemented it [15].
• But we by a love, so much refined [16],
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured [17] of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss [18].
19. endure not yet: yet
not endure, yet not
suffer
• Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet [19]
A breach, but an expansion [20],
Like gold to aery thinness beat [21].
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20. Line 23: breach: breaking,
separation; expansion:
stretching. “ breach ” and
“ expansion ” are the objects of
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“ endure ” in the above line.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• Dull sublunary [12] lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit [13]
Absence, because it [14] doth remove
Those things which elemented it [15].
• But we by a love, so much refined [16],
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured [17] of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss [18].
• Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet [19]
A breach, but an expansion [20],
Like gold to aery thinness beat [21].
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21. Line 24: like gold beaten
into extremely thin sheets,
which weigh as lightly as
air. Here the simile of
beating gold into very thin
sheets is used to describe
the parting. Also here the
poet makes comparison
between “ aery thinness
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love and “ sublunary
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• If they be two, they are two so [22]
As stiff twin compasses are two [23],
Thy soul the fixed foot [24], makes no show
To move, but doth [25], if th' other do [26].
• And though it [27] in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
22. Line 25: they: the souls of
the poet and his lover; so:
in such a way
23. Line 26: As stiff as the two
legs of a compass.
“ compasses ” here is a
familiar emblem, another
case of conceit, denoting
constancy in change.
It leans, and hearkens [28] after it [29],
And grows erect, as that [29] comes home.
• Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like the other foot [29], obliquely [30] run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just [31],
And makes me end, where I begun [32].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• If they be two, they are two so [22]
24. the fixed foot: the foot
of the compass that
remains in the center
As stiff twin compasses are two [23],
Thy soul the fixed foot [24], makes no show
To move, but doth [25], if th' other do [26].
• And though it [27] in the centre sit,
25. doth: moves.
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens [28] after it [29],
And grows erect, as that [29] comes home.
• Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like the other foot [29], obliquely [30] run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just [31],
And makes me end, where I begun [32].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• If they be two, they are two so [22]
As stiff twin compasses are two [23],
Thy soul the fixed foot [24], makes no show
26. if th' other do: if the foot
that draws the circle
moves
To move, but doth [25], if th' other do [26].
27. it: the fixed foot
• And though it [27] in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
28. hearkens: leans to as if
listening to attentively
It leans, and hearkens [28] after it [29],
And grows erect, as that [29] comes home.
• Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like the other foot [29], obliquely [30] run;
29. it, that, the other foot:
the foot of the
compass that draws
the circle.
Thy firmness makes my circle just [31],
And makes me end, where I begun [32].
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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
• If they be two, they are two so [22]
As stiff twin compasses are two [23],
Thy soul the fixed foot [24], makes no show
To move, but doth [25], if th' other do [26].
• And though it [27] in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens [28] after it [29],
30. obliquely: slantingly
And grows erect, as that [29] comes home.
• Such wilt thou be to me, who must
31. just: complete
Like the other foot [29], obliquely [30] run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just [31],
And makes me end, where I begun [32].
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32. Line 36: And makes the
complete circle. The circle is
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an emblem of perfection.