Poetry Analysis:
John Donne
By:
Marilyn Braojos
Kimanh Nguyen
Faith Sola
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:
Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
But we by a love so much refined,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning (Continued)
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
Summary:
Usually during the final days of a person’s life, the loved ones surrounding them
assume the roles of mourners in denial, anger, and pain. John Donne in, “A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” juxtaposes the idea between natural
disasters, spirituality, and death to the love between his wife and him.
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
Connotation/Analysis:
-Literary Terms
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole
Metaphors
Alliteration
Simile
Synecdoche
Enjambment
Allusion
Symbol
1. Onomatopoeia:
“Whispers to their souls to go,” [Line 2]
2. Hyperbole:
“No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;” [Line 6]
3. Metaphors:
“So let us melt, and make no noise,” [Line 5&6]
“The soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show” [Line 27]
4. Alliteration:
“Whilst some of their sad friends do say No:” (S) [Line 3]
“Dull sublunary lovers’ love” (L) [Line 13]
“(Whose soul is sense)” (S) [Line 14]
“ Care less eyes, lips, and hands to miss” (S) [Line 20]
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
Connotation/Analysis
(Continued):
-Literary Terms
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole
Metaphors
Alliteration
Simile
Synecdoche
Enjambment
Allusion
Symbol
5. Simile:
“Like gold to airy thinness beat.” [Line 24]
6. Synecdoche:
“ Care less eyes, lips, and hands to miss” [Line 20]
7. Enjambment:
“(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit/ absence...” [Line
14]
“Though I must go, endure not yet/ A breach, but an
expansion,” [Line 22 & 23]
8. Allusion:
“Our two souls therefore, which are one,” [Line 21]
9. Symbol:
“ Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show” [Line 27]
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
Attitude
Tone
Sanguine:
The ability to remain optimistic in a
difficult situation
“It leans and hearkens after it,/ and
grows erect, as that comes home.”
[Line 31 & 32]
“And makes me end when I begun”
[Line 36]
Shifts
Volta
1. Between stanza 2 & 3
- From love to nature
2. Between stanza 4 & 5
- From senses to a personalized
love (Donne and his wife)
3. Between stanza 8 & 9
- From metaphorical and
convulted to everything plain
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
Sound Effects:
Punctuation
Donne uses four different types of
punctuation, including: commas,
dashes, periods, colons, and
semicolons.
Rhyme & Rhythm
- Iambic tetrameter (8 syllables)
- Trochee: a reverse iambic foot (2)
[Line 9]: “Moving of th’earth brings harms
and fear,”
[Line 15]: “Absence, because it doth
remove”
- Epithet: “Tear-floods/sigh-tempest”
- To preserve the scheme of the iambic
tetrameter, Donne combined the
words, “it were” to “‘Twere”
- Type of Poem: Lyric
A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning
Theme:
John Donne in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” incorporates the themes
of love, lust, spirituality, and loyalty. It apparent the Donne favors spirituality
over physical attractions as demonstrated through his various juxtapositions
contributing to the overall meaning of the work as a whole.
Meditation XVII
NUNC LENTO SONITU DICUNT, MORIERIS.
Now this bell tolling softly for another,
says to me, Thou must die.
PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for
him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are
about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The
church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When
she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that
body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And
when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one
volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a
better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several
translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by
Meditation XVII (Continued)
justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered
leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore
the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the
congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought
so near the door by this sickness.
There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and
estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the
morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we
understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be
glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his,
whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit
again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.
Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a
comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion
Meditation XVII (Continued)
rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this
world?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for
whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were
not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking
upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did,
for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction
enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a
man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current
Meditation XVII (Continued)
money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature
of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our
home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction
may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells
me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of
another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making
my recourse to my God, who is our only security.
Meditation XVII
Summary:
Among our communities, death is usually viewed with trepidation. John Donne
in “Meditation 17” views himself as he is approaching death, as is made
apparent through the church bells signifying a funeral, implying that every death
diminishes the large fabric of humanity. We are all in the world together, and
we have to use the suffering of others to learn how to live better so that we are
prepared for our own death.
Meditation XVII
Connotation:
-Literary Terms
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Metaphors
Similes
Synecdoche
Allusions/Personification
Symbolism
1. Metaphors:
“… When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the
book, but translated into a better language…”
2. Simile:
“... And this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a
mine…”
3. Synecdoche:
“... But God’s hand is in every translation…”
4. Allusion/Personification:
“The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her
actions…”
5. Symbolism:
“The bell tolls” symbolize a funeral.
Meditation XVII
Attitude
Tone
Shifts
Volta
Meditative:
The ability to remain calm.
He also takes the time to think about
God, religion and his health.
“No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main…”
-Due to the prose being a narrative
with a consistent point of view, there
is no apparent volta in the work.
Meditation XVII
Sound Effects:
Punctuation
Donne repeatedly uses a plethora of
semicolons, colons, and periods.
Rhyme & Rhythm
-
There is no Iambic meter or
rhyme scheme because the
poem is written in the form of
prose.
Meditation XVII
Theme:
John Donne’s “Meditation 17,” mainly conveys the idea that all of humanity is
connected to one another. Therefore, when a person dies it affects everyone in
the population; a point of view that leads to the overall meaning of the work as
a whole that, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main.”