TPS-FASTT: A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Title In other words, the title means, “If we’re apart, there is to be no mourning”. The word, “valediction” means an act of leaving or farewell, so when one is leaving or becoming farther apart from this other person, to mourn is not allowed. The poem could be referring to someone missing a loved one or partner because they are not physically next to each other and he wants to reassure the partner to not worry and miss him or her. This could also suggest to focus on other important subjects instead of mourning him or her for the whole time he or she is gone. Paraphrase In stanza one, the poet is stating that men who have done good deeds in their lives pass away peacefully without complaining while their sad friends debate whether if the person will die now or will live for a little longer. In stanza two, Donne is saying to let their love “melt” and not whine, just like the men mentioned before. He wants no crying and sobbing, or it will mean that our love will be abused or a lie. In stanza three, the poet describes how an earthquake invokes fear while the involuntary trembles of spheres do not because it is done without one’s conscious knowledge. In stanza four, Donne is saying that they both cannot accept the absence of each other’s partner or their love will be dull. In stanza five, he is saying that their love is so sophisticated and important that they don’t need their physical body next to each other in order to love each other. In stanza six, the poet is saying that their souls are connected and that even though he must leave, their love spiritually goes through this problem and grows bigger and wider, just like how gold becomes wider when beaten. In stanza seven, he compares their love to a measurement tool with two legs in order for it to work properly, with them being the two legs and how they are always connected, even though one moves. In stanza eight, he says that even though he is the one moving, that just like the compass legs, they are both always facing each other, but spiritually. In stanza nine, Donne is saying that their love helps him complete his love and life, just like how the compass forms a complete circle, from beginning to end. Speaker The speaker seems to be mostly a man, who is living far away from his loved one, maybe his wife or girlfriend. He explains in this poem how he obviously misses her, but they both cannot cry for each other to be next to each other for a one reason: their love is strong in spirit. He uses a number of metaphors to explain, such as “trepidation of the spheres”(11), “Like gold to airy thinness beat”(24), and “ as stiff twin compasses are two”(26). All these examples provide a supporting fact to why they both shouldn’t cry that he is leaving. Figurative Language - Metaphors: Donne relies extensively on metaphors to convey how strong their love is for each other. First, he compares his separation from his lover, which is implied to be his wife, to the “men [who] pass mildly away, / And whisper to their souls to go”(1-2). With the body representing physical love and the “souls” representing spiritual love, Donne is explaining that their love should be like these men, who are letting their souls leave without any objections. Even though he is leaving, he is saying that since they are both connected spiritually, being apart from each other shouldn’t be a problem. Also, he uses “As stiff twin compasses are two;”(26) to show how they both will always be together, no matter what. With each lover representing one of the two legs on the measurement tool, Donne shows how they are both part of the same object, which means that if the outer leg, which is himself, starts moving, the inner leg, which is his wife, also has to move with him, thus portraying how since they both move, they are part of the same soul and that their love is always connected. - Paradox: Donne uses paradox when he states, “Our two souls therefore, which are one”(21) to support the idea that their love for each other is strong, which keeps them together. In other words, he is saying that even though they are two separate people and are apart from each other at the moment, their souls are always linked together, hence, “one” even though there are “two souls”. - Simile: Donne even uses a simile to explain that the idea of being apart will not hinder their progress to love each other, but to build it even stronger. He says, “Like gold to airy thinness beat”(24), shows that like how gold becomes wider when beaten, their love will grow wider and expand with their physical separation, since this will provide the opportunity to know that their spirits are united and will stretch when he leaves. This justifies why they shouldn’t mourn for each other due to their strong spiritual connection. Attitude (Tone) The tone in this poem seems to be somber yet encouraging at the same time. The somber part is accredited to the parts of “men pass mildly away”(1) and “Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears”(9) which both invoke the emotion of death and fear, two feelings that really add a dark aura around the poem; however, with “so make no noise”(5), “we by a love so much refined”(17), and “Our two souls therefore, which are one”(21), the encouraging portion is emphasized so much more than the somber part, thus taking over and giving a more cheerful nature to the poem. Shifts The poem has constant shifts from a metaphor to their love and then back to another metaphor and then back again to their love. This process is repeated four times. The groups of metaphor-to-love include: “men pass mildly away”(1), “moving of th’ earth”(9) , “like gold”(24), and “As stiff twin compasses are two”(26). Each subject mentioned is an example that Donne uses to justify his reason why they both shouldn’t cry and mourn since they are apart. After each group, Donne is able to convey his message thoroughly with a clear understanding. Title The title refers to Donne missing his wife and writes this poem to comfort her and make sure that she isn’t crying because he isn’t next to her. He uses the metaphors mentioned to show examples of how their love is spiritually connected, which gives the couple no reason to cry over each other. With the idea of always being with each other spiritually, Donne is able to relate to the theme of never-dying love. Theme The main theme of this poem is that real and complete love not only unites the bodies of a husband and wife, but also their souls. Even though they will sometimes be apart, knowing that they still love each other spiritually and intellectually will keep them dedicated to their loved one, just like how the “stiff twin compasses are two”(25) even though they are both still connected to the same object, which means they are united into one. Questions 1.) Valediction – an act of leaving; farewell Mourning – to cry or miss someone or something Profanation – Abusement or vulgarize Laity – those who are not members of a given profession Trepidation – involuntary trembling or quivering Innocent – free of guilt Sublunary – earthly Elemented – began; start of 2.) The speaker is not about to die, but is just about to leave for a journey. With the quote, “thy firmness makes my circle just, / and makes me end where I begun”(35) really proves that he is just going on a trip and will return. With “makes my circle just” shows that she completes his life, giving him no reason not to come back and “makes me end where I begun” just adds more support that he is coming back, since he “began” his journey from home and will “end” back at home. 3.) These terms are metaphorical, with “laity”(8) referring to normal people and priesthood to their own version of love. The essential difference between these two versions of love is that Donne portrays the “laity’s” love to be strictly physical and does not go beyond the point of physical attraction. He is implying that if they both cry for each other, it would ruin their foundation to love each to other, making it seem that their love was based entirely on the body and appearance rather than accepting that he has to leave for now and not cry “tear-floods”(6) and “sigh-tempest”(6), which both essentially mean huge amounts of tears and sighs associated with mourning. Donne wants both of each other to know that they are spiritually connected, thus the “priesthood”. The motivation for the speaker to go on his “valediction”(title) is that he know he will see her again, since they both are like “stiff twin compasses” who each completes each person’s life and “makes me end, where I begun”(36), meaning that the trip will come full circle to physically be with each other again.

4.) The one metaphor is when Donne says, “Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears / But trepidation of the spheres / though greater far, is innocent”(9,11-12). He is saying that an earthquake causes commotion, but the movements of celestial spheres, such as the Sun or other planets, are natural and don’t cause any commotion or invoke any fear. He relates this to his love and how they shouldn’t respond so dramatically to his parting because his leaving is only natural, since he will be coming back, fulfilling a roundtrip or “orbit”, so to speak. One of simile is when Donne says, “As virtuous men pass mildly away, / And whisper to their souls to go”(1-2), he relates his love to how men let their souls go to Heaven and leave their body without any objections or complaints, which is what he and his wife should be doing instead of crying because of the distance between each other. Another simile is when Donne says, “Like gold to airy thinness beat”(24), which means how gold becomes really flat when beaten. Donne uses this simile to provide an optimistic viewpoint to the idea of being separated from one another. He connects the distance to how gold becomes wider with each hit of a hammer or tool to their strength in spiritual love and connection. With each hit, the gold becomes wider, just like how each foot or mile makes their relationship stretch, but is still, nonetheless, a connection, thus proving that even though they are apart, they still are spiritually together. The last simile used, and probably the most important one, is when Donne compares his wife and him to “stiff twin compasses”(26). Donne essentially states that since one leg of a compass moves to form a circle, the other stays put, but still turns with the other leg, connecting the idea that each lover is still with the other partner, no matter which way they go. The compass represents how their soul is connected into one, thus causing both compasses legs to either turn or move each other.