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A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

John Donne

About “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

The poem was Written in 1611 right before Donne departed on official business, required by his employers. ‘Valediction’ means parting or farewell. It is one of his most famous poems, and also one of his most accessible and fascinating in its memorable metaphysical conceit, that of the loving couple as a compass.

Donne uses this poem to try and convince his wife that they will cope with their separation as their love is so pure and enduring. The essence of his reasoning is his assertion that his love is fundamentally spiritual. For all the eroticism in poems such as The Flea, Donne professes a spiritual devotion that transcends physical love. In other poems, like Love’s Alchemy, Donne is impatient with those who claim to only value the highest Platonic ideal, yet here he is not far off doing just that.

Anticipating a physical separation from his beloved, Donne invokes the nature of that spiritual love to ward off the “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests” that might otherwise attend on their farewell. The poem is essentially a sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing a way of looking at their separation that will help them to avoid the mourning forbidden by the poem’s title.

This poem comprises nine four-lined stanzas or quatrains. It follows a simple ABAB rhyme scheme. It broadly follows a iambic tetrameter metrical rhythm, though often deviates from strict adherence to the pattern.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of the poet, using the first person ‘I’ and addressing his young wife who, characteristically, is a passive subject; she is allowed no voice of her own.

The poem progresses straightforwardly from quatrain to quatrain, metaphor to metaphor — celestial spheres, a compass, gold, dying virtuously, are typical examples of Donne’s fertile imagination. The inventiveness and cleverness can be best understood from the detailed annotations.

What Does Metaphysical Mean?
The word ‘meta’ means ‘after,’ so the translation of ‘metaphysical’ is ‘after the physical.’ Metaphysics deals with questions that can’t be explained by science, and explores the nature of reality in a philosophical way.

Common metaphysical questions include the following:
•Does God exist?
• What is the difference between reality and perception?
•Is everything that happens already predetermined? If so, then is free choice non-existent?
•Is consciousness limited to the brain?

Of course, there is no one correct answer; Metaphysics is about exploration and philosophy, not about science and mathematics.

One common characteristic is that Metaphysical poetry is clever and witty. The poets examined serious questions with humour and inventiveness.

Metaphysical poetry also sought to shock and challenge the reader; to question the unquestionable. The poetry often mixed ordinary speech with intellectual paradoxes and puns. The results were strange, comparing unlikely things, such as lovers to a compass or the soul to a drop of dew. These bizarre comparisons were called ‘conceits’.

Metaphysical poetry also explored a few common themes — religion; the theme of carpe diem (seize the day) and the nature of humanity and emotions.

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