A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Lyric Poem

Consider the ways in which Donne and Jennings use form, structure and language to present their thoughts and ideas. You should make relevant references to your wider reading in the poetry of love.

Donne compares the lover’s souls to two parts on a working compass. When a compass draws a circle, the circle stays stationary while the needle leans toward the magnetic attractions of the North Pole. A compass magnet always follows Earth’s magnetic field. The stationary point helps to show the needle the way north which correlates with helping one get home. Thus, these two parts represent the husband and wife. The wife being the stationary point that draws the needle (husband) in the direction back home.

In a sense, a felt that Donne was saying that death dies to us because we no longer have to experience it. This was my interpretation of the poem, and I feel that this poem speaks to me because as a Christian, I understand that death is not the end, but merely a phase of transition in to the afterlife. Those of us who have faith in our God and the lord Jesus Christ, know that our souls rest eternally in heaven with God when we die. I think the fear of death arises because of the mysterious and unknown aspect of death, but for those who belief in the word of God, death no longer holds power over them.

Death in Do not go gentle into that good night and Death Be Not Proud

Donne’s poem warns that the woman that the man seeks is not necessarily worth catching. That idea is seen in lines

John Dunn is a creative poet. Dunn wrote this poem to his girl when he was leaving the country. Love is the main point of the poem. Dunn uses conceits to explain what love is. In the poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Dunn, there are three messages his poem give to his women.

Death is a theme that is used all too often in literature. Usually when people encounter death, they come to expect certain feelings. Whether someone they know has passed away, or they are just reading a play in which someone dies; death is often associated with feelings of anger, depression, and denial. In a play titled Wit, Margaret Edson depicts stages of dying through a woman who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In his holy sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud”, John Donne challenges death in a way that illustrates his belief that there is an afterlife.

Both the “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson contain age-old themes. These themes focus on inevitable feelings and events of life; love and death. Although both “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contain the two themes, they differ greatly in how they are presented and what they represent. In “Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” a husband traveling away from his wife is consoling her.

"I have no will to weep or sing...No least desire to pray or curse”: These two lines expresses how the author did not have any hope less and was feeling depressed. Furthermore, Emily Dickinson’s poem ‘What If I Say’, again the tone is extremely hopeless; her love has died but “yesterday” and without him “dungeons, nor guns do scare” her; without him there is nothing left for her. Donne, however, is hopeful that they will have many “years” together, but even if they don’t, the “second of (their)…reign” shall be in the afterlife; even death would not be the end of their love (“death be no divorce”). Jennings’ finds some comfort in her parent’s spiritual bond in the final stanza (“strangely close together”, even if it is as weak as a “thread”. She feels great tenderness for the parents who once passionately loved each other and her, the feather and thread images are gentle and soft, suggesting her love for her parents is also this way.

Where, this line explains when the lover gives a quality of a human being to something abstract.

     Donne seems to suggest that the experience in separating for those who are of a “refined love” is a positive one. Although we commonly associate separation with sorrow and despair, he seems to associate it with strength and greatness. In this separation their love is expanded, it grows and travels around the globe with them. He implies this experience of separation through his metaphor of “gold to airy thinness beat.” In the experience of separation their love is worked and expanded. The compass metaphor seems to suggest also that the two lovers gather their strength from one another, as the one foot stays planted ensuring which “makes my circle just.” In feeding strength to and from each other, their separation simply allows them to express and experience their love in a new and equally positive way, knowing that eventually they will end up where they began.

Donne transformed the love poetry he wrote in his early days, beginning in 1617 with the death of his wife Anne More, to religious poetry with a strong sense of awareness of death and its import. This poetic development from classical poetry to more personal poetry reflects the events that marked his own life, and can be traced throughout his poetry. This kind of personal and thereby

Is death a slave to fate or is it a dreaded reality? People differ on the opinion of death, some people view death as a new beginning which should not be feared, while many people perceive death as an atrocious monster. Death be not proud, by John Donne is a poem that challenges death and the idea of its ferocity. Donne’s work is greatly influenced by the death of his countless family members, friends and spouse. Donne was not only a poet, but he was also a priest in the Church of England, so his interest in religion and his belief in eternal life after death, also contributed greatly to his work. The poem Death be not proud, is a metaphysical poem about death, in which John Donne undermines, ridicules, and determines the meaning of death, according to his perspective.

Near the end of the poem, Donne makes an unlikely comparison between the couple and a draftsman's compass. This is one of his most famous metaphysical conceits because the two elements which are being compared appear completely different, and yet, amazingly, Donne is able to connect them. He explains that his wife is his "fixed foot" that leans towards him as he roams and straightens again as he returns, but remains his center. Her firmness is what makes his circle complete, "[a]nd makes [him] end where [he] begun"(line 36). The imagery of the circle and the spheres in this poem solidify the eternity of their love and the knowledge that the speaker will always return to the place where he began. Donne's comparisons create an image of celebration rather than mourning.

In this essay I will mainly focus on two poems written by John Donne, The Rising Sun and Death be not proud. These poems were written during the Elizabethan era, which was an era mainly characterized by love and colonialism, on separate terms of course. These principles often influenced poets who lived during this period. Their poetry acts as testimonies of their underlying thoughts and desires. Furthermore, metaphysical poets deliver a more divine and profound perspective to their poetry. Within their conceits, they manage to engage and delight themselves in deeper movements. This essay will further discuss how John Donne used death and the sun to his disposal. I will also critically analyse the two poems as well grasp on external aspects