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150 Unit 2 ■ Analyzing Comparisons and Representations John Donne ■ A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 151 UNIT 2

15 Absence, because it doth remove CHARACTER then explains how their strong, spiritual love
Those things which elemented it. will be able to withstand such a loss.
1. Who is the speaker? What do the details in the first stanza reveal about beliefs, IDEAS IN LITERATURE 7. The speaker uses first-person plural
But we by a love so much refined, values, and cultural norms of the speaker’s culture?
That our selves know not what it is, pronouns to emphasize the connectedness
2. The speaker reveals a relationship in the poem. What is that relationship? How of his relationship with the unnamed
Inter-assured of the mind,20 does it contribute to the poem’s meaning? individual whom he loves deeply.
20 Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
3. How does the speaker’s action contribute to your interpretation of the poem? 8. Responses may vary. Lines 7–9 suggest
Our two souls therefore, which are one, ambiguities related to “mourning.”
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
Though I must go, endure not yet STRUCTURE 9. Stanza 3 compares the speaker’s death to
A breach, but an expansion, 4. How does the first stanza create a larger context for understanding this poem? other unexplainable acts of nature (including
Like gold to airy thinness beat.25 earthquakes and astronomical movements).
5. How does the speaker’s relationship to the events of the poem contribute to the
25 If they be two, they are two so conflict of the poem? The comparison situates the speaker’s loving
As stiff twin compasses are two; 6. How does the sequencing of events in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” relationship within the entire universe. The
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show contribute to the experience of reading the poem? comparison elevates their relationship to
great spiritual heights or great significance
To move, but doth, if the other do. and solemnity.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: Word Choice, Imagery, and Symbols
And though it in the center sit,30 10. The speaker compares his soul and the soul
30 Yet when the other far doth roam, 7. How do the pronouns and their antecedents further develop the relationship of his beloved (as one soul) to a strip of gold
It leans and hearkens after it, between the speaker and the subject of the poem? that has been struck so often it’s so thin it’s
And grows erect, as that comes home. 8. How do the speaker’s words and phrases create ambiguous meanings? Point to almost invisible, yet it is still intact.
a specific example that invites multiple interpretations. 11. The lines demonstrate that the connection
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;35 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: Comparisons between the speaker and his lover is greater
35 Thy firmness makes my circle just, and more significant than the elements of the
physical world.
And makes me end where I begun. 9. Stanza three introduces a comparison. What objects or concepts are being
compared? How does the comparison contribute to the meaning of the poem? 12. Donne compares the relationship to a
drafting compass. Two legs (or extensions) of
10. The simile in stanza six compares two objects. What are they? How does the this tool are joined as one; in order to draw
comparison contribute to the message of the poem?
a complete circle, one must remain fixed
IDEAS IN LITERATURE: Thought and Feeling and the other encircles the centered leg.
The speaker figuratively compares his soul
11. The speaker claims that he and his beloved share a “love so much refined / to the part of the compass that must move
That our selves know not what it is / Inter-assured of the mind.” How do these (depart from) the other leg. The comparison
lines capture both the thought and the feeling of the speaker? How does this illustrates how two parts of a whole comprise
characterization combine both emotion and logic to resolve the tension in the such a strong relationship and how they must
poem? Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
work in tandem to create a circle symbolizing
everlasting love.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
The photograph by Chandan 12. Donne introduces a conceit in the poem — that is, an extended metaphor
Chakraborty shows the compass between objects or concepts that seem very different. What is the conceit?
at work. Chandan Chakraborty/EyeEm/Getty Images What is being compared? How does this comparison contribute to the reader’s
What do circles represent to you? understanding?
How can a circle translate to a
human experience?

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SUGGESTED RESPONSES 3. Line 22, the speaker acts in that he “must
TO THE QUESTIONS go,” physically leaving his spouse (on a
journey or through death); the devotion
1. The speaker is likely the author, John Donne. described by the speaker is bittersweet in
The first stanza reveals it was honorable for that it will not last physically and, requiring
an individual to accept their own mortality, trust in order to transcend time.
the culture believes in souls that exist beyond 4. The first stanza describes death, which is an
the physical world, it was customary to be individual’s permanent departure from the
surrounded by “sad friends,” who would physical world in their own body.
witness the individual’s death. 5. The speaker is directly involved in the conflict
2. The relationship is a deep, long-standing, as he is the one who is dying, causing
romantic one; beginning in line 8, the speaker emotional distress for both.
addresses a lover, suggesting the two have 6. The speaker opens the text with an illustration
publicly commited to each other (and a that contrasts a tumultuous reaction to a
higher power). The two individuals expressed loved one’s death with a more reserved,
their commitment and devotion to each other hopeful vision of his own death. The speaker
(and likely to a higher spiritual power).

John Donne A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 151

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