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| Enrichment activityFind a copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and compare it to this poem. Focus on intention and meaning. |
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne
(See p. 5 in Poems From All Over)
| Title: | The speaker is making a farewell speech to his lover, forbidding any sadness or mourning at their parting. |
| Theme: | Love that is of a higher form than ordinary love will survive the parting because it is more than just physical. |
| Mood: | Sad, consoling, reassuring. |
Discussion
The speaker is saying goodbye to his lover, as he has to leave her for a time. He doesn’t want any show of tears or unhappiness at their parting or any display of public emotion. The rest of the poem describes the superior kind of love the two have. He uses several comparisons and images to do this. He declares that their two souls are one and the separation will mean that this united soul expands to fill the space between them. His final comparison is with a compass, the two feet being joined at the centre, just as their souls are. He may move away from her just as one compass leg can move away from the other, but will always be moving in a circle around her and will always come back.
The poem has nine four-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme of abab. Notice also the way the poem appears on the page, its form. The indented alternate lines gives the poem a sense of balance and order which links with the ordered way the speaker wishes the two of them to deal with their separation.
Analysis
| Stanza | Comment | |
| 1 | The speaker mentions how good men die mildly and quietly, even while some sad friends watch as the breathing stops, while other friends might argue, possibly hoping that the person is not dying. | The speaker is going to compare the parting of the lovers to what he describes in the first stanza: a good man dying without great emotion and noise. Notice the “As” at the beginning (line 1), which means “Just as …” The second stanza begins with “So …”, linking the ideas in the two. The comparison is sombre, and gives weight to the parting. The speaker acknowledges that the parting is a serious thing that is happening to them. |
| 2 | Here we find out what the dying is being compared to. The lovers are to part as if melting and without noise or tears or sighs. It would debase their love and happiness, the speaker says, if ordinary people (“laity”) were to become aware of their unhappiness. | Melting is a gradual, quiet process not a loud happening. This tells how he wants them, especially the woman, to behave at their parting. Floods of tears and storms of sighs are exaggerations to emphasise what the speaker does not want. This would alert others to what is happening. Using the word “profanation” elevates their love to a spiritual level, above that of the “laity”, the common people. |
| 3 | When the earth moves (earthquakes and volcanoes, possibly) destruction and fear follow and men discuss the results. However, when the planets tremble, it is a bigger event and yet brings no fear or damage. | The speaker compares an earthquake with the trembling of the stars. The first causes disruption, fear, noise and discussion. And yet the stars trembling is a much bigger happening, but no concern or noise follows it.The comparison here between their parting and that of other lovers is not stated. The reader is left to understand that this is what he is saying: their love is bigger than other people’s and is like stars trembling, with no noise or consternation to follow it. |
| 4 | The speaker explains further that ordinary (“sublunary”) lovers cannot bear an absence because their love is made up of the physical ties between them. | The speaker describes the ordinary lovers as having a soul of sense, meaning physical love. It is the physical that keeps them together. If they were apart, there would be no physical love and so the love would not endure. Here, “admit” means let it happen, let “absence” into their relationship. |
| 5 | Their own love is “so much refined”, that it is above the mere physical level, and is a union of their minds so that they care less about missing each other’s caresses (“eyes, lips, and hands”). | This stanza follows on the previous one in meaning. The previous stanza describes ordinary love as being about the physical while their “refined” love is “of the mind” and will therefore outlast a physical absence.These last four stanzas all say the same thing: their love can bear absence because of the better kind of love it is, while ordinary love would die. He is reassuring his lover that he will continue loving her and will return. |
| 6 | Their two souls are really one and therefore, when he is away from her, that one soul will stretch (“expansion”). She must not think of it as broken (“A breach”). It will expand just as gold does when beaten very thin. | The speaker continues explaining what their kind of love is and why it will endure a separation. Note the “therefore” (line 21), which links this stanza to the previous one. He says he “must go”, implying that he doesn’t necessarily want to go, but is required to.Notice the simile (comparing one thing to another using “like” or “as”) in line 24. |
| 7 | A different comparison is made here. If their souls are indeed two and separate, they are nevertheless linked at the centre just as a compass, having two legs, is linked. Her soul, just like the fixed leg of a compass, does not seem to move, but it does indeed as the other one moves. | The speaker gives another simile to convince his lover of the nature of their love. Think of using a compass to draw a circle. The one foot stays still (“fixed”) while the other turns around it. Yet though seeming apart, they are joined at the top, the middle. |
| 8 | Even though the still leg/foot is in the centre, when the other one stretches away, it leans away and listens to (“obeys”) the other one. It then becomes upright again when the moving leg/foot comes back to it. | The still leg/foot doesn’t appear to move but it does as the other one does and leans over from the centre in a widening upside down V( |
| 9 | The comparison is explained. She will be his “fixed foot” and he the other one that has to leave (“run”). Because she stands firm and does not waver (in her love) he is able to circle around (go away). Her firmness keeps his circle “just”, like the firm leg/foot keeps the other leg/foot in a perfect circle. Because of her, he will end where he began, with her, just as the moving leg/foot of the compass comes to lie against the other leg/foot when the compass is closed. | The speaker is still reassuring his love. She remains his centre, and she must be firm and steadfast and he will come back to her.The last three stanzas form an extended comparison. |
Contextual questions
1.What words in the first stanza indicate that the dying is done in a dignified, restrained manner? (2)
2.Explain in what way the third stanza is linked to the parting of the lovers. (4)
3.Identify the simile in stanza 6, explain what is being compared to what, in what way they are alike, and what the effect of the simile is. (6)
4.What word in the final stanza is an antonym (having the opposite meaning) of “end”? (2)
5.Do you think the speaker anticipates that his lover will be very unhappy at his leaving her for a while? Explain your answer with reference to the poem. (6)
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The Collar by George Herbert
(See p. 8 in Poems From All Over)
| Title: | A collar has several connotations: a yoke, a priest’s collar, and a dog collar, something that restricts and forces the wearer to obey. |
| Theme: | Rebellion against the constraints of religion, and then submission. |
| Mood: | Rebellious, angry, finally submissive. |
Discussion
In this lyric,