Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 22

A VALEDICTION:

FORBIDDING MOURNING
A "valediction" is a farewell speech. This cautions against
grief about separation, and affirms poem the special,
particular love the speaker and his lover share.
BACKGROUND STORY

"A valediction: forbidding mourning" shows many features associated with


seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry in general, and with Donne's work in particular.
Donne's contemporary, the English writer Izaak Walton, tells us the poem dates from
1611, when Donne, about to travel to France and Germany, wrote for his wife this
valediction, or farewell speech. Like most poetry of Donne's time, it did not appear in
print during the poet's lifetime. The poem was first published in 1633, two years after
Donne's death, in a collection of his poems called songs and sonnets. Even during his life,
however, Donne's poetry became well known because it circulated privately in manuscript
and handwritten copies among literate Londoners.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE
POEM?
• Donne's speaker begins with the very weird metaphor of an old man dying. He says that the parting
between him and his wife should be like the gentle death of an old man—you cannot even tell when he
has stopped breathing.
• Then he compares shallow love to earthquakes that make a big scene and cause a big fuss, but don't
have tremendous lasting effects. On the contrary, his love is like the unnoticed, subtle movements of the
stars and planets that control the fates of every person (well, according to popular belief). That couple
cannot stand to be apart because their love is based solely on physical contact, but the love he has can
stretch any distance because the pair share one soul. Now he's turning on that old Donne charm.
• To further prove the greatness of their love, he gives his last extended metaphor: a mathematical
compass—he says that he and his wife are like a compass when drawing a circle. One foot of the
compass (Donne) goes way out and travels around, while the other (his wife) stays planted at home and
leans after it. But those two compass feet are part of one unit and will always end up back together.
LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS

POEM ANALYSIS

As virtuous men pass mildly away, The speaker opens with an image of
good men dying quietly, softly urging
   And whisper to their souls to go,
their souls to leave their bodies. These
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
virtuous deaths are so imperceptible
that the dying men's friends disagree
   The breath goes now, and some say, no: about whether or not the men have
stopped breathing yet.
ANALYSIS
POEM

The speaker argues that he and the lover


he's bidding farewell to should take these
So let us melt, and make no noise, 
deaths as a model, and part ways silently. 
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 
They should not give in to the temptation to
'twere profanation of our joys  weep and sigh excessively. In fact, grieving
 to tell the laity our love.  so openly would degrade their private love
by broadcasting it to ordinary people.
ANALYSIS
POEM

Natural earthly disturbances, such as


Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,  earthquakes, hurt and scare human
beings. Ordinary people notice these
men reckon what it did, and meant; 
events happening and wonder what they
but trepidation of the spheres,  mean. However, the movements of the
though greater far, is innocent.  heavens, while being larger and more
significant, go unnoticed by most people.
POEM ANALYSIS

Dull sublunary lovers' love  Boring, commonplace people feel a kind of


love that, because it depends on sensual
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit 
connection, can't handle separation. 
Absence, because it doth remove 
Being physically apart takes away the
 Those things which elemented it.  physical bond that their love depends on.
ANALYSIS
POEM

The speaker and his lover, on the other hand,


experience a more rare and special kind of
But we by a love so much refined, 
bond. 
 That our selves know not what it is, 
They cannot even understand it themselves,
Inter-assured of the mind,  but they are linked mentally, certain of one
 Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.  another on a non-physical plane. Because of
this, it matters less to them when their
bodies are apart.
ANALYSIS
POEM

The souls of the lovers are unified by


love. Although the speaker must leave, their
Our two souls therefore, which are one, 
souls will not be broken apart. Instead, they
 Though I must go, endure not yet  will expand to cover the distance between
A breach, but an expansion,  them, as fine metal expands when it is
Like gold to airy thinness beat.  hammered.
ANALYSIS
POEM

If they be two, they are two so  If their souls are in fact individual, they are
nevertheless linked in the way the legs of a
As stiff twin compasses are two; 
drawing compass are linked. The soul of the
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no lover is like the stationary foot of the
show  compass, which does not appear to move
To move, but doth, if the other do.  itself but actually does respond to the other
foot's movement.
POEM ANALYSIS

This stationary compass foot sits in the


And though it in the center sit,  center of a paper. When the other compass
Yet when the other far doth roam,  foot moves further away, the stationary foot
changes its angle to lean in that direction, as
It leans and hearkens after it, 
if longing to be nearer to its partner. As the
 and grows erect, as that comes home.  moving foot returns, closing the compass,
the stationary foot stands straight again,
seeming alert and excited.
ANALYSIS
POEM

The speaker's lover, he argues, will be like his


Such wilt thou be to me, who must, 
stationary foot, while he himself must travel a
 Like th' other foot, obliquely run;  circuitous, indirect route. 
Thy firmness makes my circle just,  Her fixed position provides him with the
And makes me end where I begun.  stability to create a perfect circle, which ends
exactly where it began—bringing the speaker
back to his beloved once again.
LONG STORY SHORT……….

“Do not mourn me while I am gone!


Our love is far beyond the ordinary,
It is spiritual, it persists without psychical body!
So we are always together, even when apart.
You are the center of my life, love…
And I will come back to you always!”
MORE THINGS TO CONSIDER

• The compass and the spheres represent the combination of their souls as they love each
other deeply.
• Tone: very sincere and caring
• Stanza structure: 9 quatrains
Message given: When you are apart from your beloved, you should not mourn because
true love will not let the distance come between you two as an obstacle.
PLOT

The speaker is being separated from his beloved. He believes that the
spiritual connection that they share can overcome the apparently
insignificant distance that has come between them. He believes that their
love is expanding rather than being diminshed. He concludes the poem with
a lengthy metaphor comparing his lover and himself to a mathematical
compass - two distinct parts of a single unit.
His beloved is the force that always makes him "end where [he] begun”.
SPEAKER

• The speaker is a man who is being physically separated from his significant other
• The speaker belittles relationships that exist only physically
• The audience is the man's lover whom he appears to be attempting to reassure about their
separation
• The poem addresses the idea that true love - which can withstand any valediction - must be
more than a love "whose soul is sense"
• Another theme present throughout the poem is the idea that spirituality can better ones life. It
allows the speaker to overcome any urge to mourn and recognize the insignificance of their
separation.
DICTION

The poem addresses the idea that true love - which can withstand any valediction - must be
more than a love "whose soul is sense”. Another theme present throughout the poem is the
idea that spirituality can better ones life. It allows the speaker to overcome any urge to
mourn and recognize the insignificance of their separation.

Dialogue: "'Now his breath goes'" ... "'no'"


Simile: "Like gold to aery thinness beat"
Overstatement: "Tear-floods"
THEMES

Love, separation, and acceptance are the significant themes present in the poem. The
poem is primarily concerned with the love of the speaker with his significant other.
Though they are going to part due to circumstances, yet their love will remain pure and
true. He develops these themes by comparing his love with the legs of a mathematical
compass to show that they are two separate entities and yet connected and whole. He
further supports his ideas by crafting many metaphors to explain that their love is not
limited to physical attraction. It rather rests in their souls. Therefore, sadness, tears, and
mourning are not appropriate for them.
QUESTIONS TO THINK DEEPER

1. Why do you think Donne emphasizes "two-ness" and "one-ness" so much in the sixth
stanza?
2. In what way does Donne reassure his wife that he will also be faithful?
3. Why do you think the speaker spends most of the first half of the poem talking
about other peoples' shallow love before moving on to talk about his own relationship?
4. What is the logical argument made by Donne's speaker in stanza four? Do you agree
with his point? Why or why not?
5. Why do you think Donne starts a love poem with the moment of an old man's death?
6. Why does Donne make a point to call other lovers' love "sublunary"?
REFERENCE
• MOURNING, F. (2010). A VALEDICTION : FORBIDDING MOURNING : SUMMARY LINES 1-6
SUMMARY.
• SHMOOP EDITORIAL TEAM. “A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING
THEMES.” SHMOOP, SHMOOP UNIVERSITY, 11 NOV. 2008,
WWW.SHMOOP.COM/STUDY GUIDES/POETRY/VALEDICTION-FORBIDDING-
MOURNING/THEMES.
• MARTZ, LOUIS. “JOHN DONNE: LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY.” LOVELOCK: 178 -202PARTRIDGE,
A.C. JOHN DONNE LANGUAGE AND STYLE. UK: ANDRE DEUTSCH LTD, 1978. PRINT.
• LITERARY DEVICES EDITORS. (2013). A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING.
RETRIEVED NOVEMBER 4, 2014, FROM HTTPS://LITERARYDEVICES.NET/A-
VALEDICTION-FORBIDDING-MOURNING/

You might also like