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Wednesday, December 01, 2004
A Valediction: forbidding mourning - John Donne
If they be two, they are two so
If they (the souls) are two (one in the same) they stay as such. The reference to compasses is not one to directional, but to the ones that make circles. This analogy is much more complex then it seems. A compass is realistically, two different objects joined together in one place to make them more useful in every sense. The piece of the compass which holds it to the paper (stays in the same space, like the beloved) and rotates slowly in whichever direction the pencilled portion should stray. At all times they stay together. And though it in the center sit,
Imagine a compass being stretched to make the largest circle possible. the pencilled side leans out, and the pointed side leans after it. This union of followed and following is not unrequitted; it is presumed that due to the unseparable attachment they will always meet again. Once that compass is pushed back together, as to make a very tight circle, it gets to be straight; erect. The word choice of erect has an obviously sexual connotation; it implies that the mentallity and spirituallity of their love is not exclusive from the sexuallity. They exist together, but do not fret when only the mentallity is possible.
I love you |5:47 PM
AS virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules, to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
T'were prophanation of our joyes
To tell the layetie our love.
Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheares
Though greater farre, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soule is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love, so much refin'd,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care lesse, eyes, lips, and hands to misse.
Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the'other doe.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, and hearkens after it,
And growes erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to mee, who must
Like th'other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.
I think this poem belongs here... firstly because it is a perfect portrait of our love, but secondly because it's an english project and this poem is of such utter complexity that it deserves to be dissected here, so eyes can see it and it won't waste away pressed between the pages of my text book. A poem like this desrves to breathe.
AS virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules, to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
This is the beginning of a metaphor/simile.. It begins with as and ends in colon. The beginning states that virtuous men go quietly into the night, whilst the average persons left behind cry after them (make a scene.)
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
T'were prophanation of our joyes
To tell the layetie our love.
The simile ends with the metaphor of the parting in death to be like a parting in love. The first comparison asks the beloved to "melt" away-- a quiet, slow, peaceful transition (one that can be undone.) The water imagery continues in the comparison to floods and tempests.
This next two lines seem out of place. He says it would destroy their joys to tell the average people of their love. This is a similar hierarchical statement (himself vs. the average) as the virtuous man vs. mourners comparison made at the beginning of the poem.
Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheares
Though greater farre, is innocent.
Here he explains how the focus of the laity is on what's close to them, not the greater more cosmic problems. The moving of the earth implies an earth quake-- something men question without understanding. However, the next repherence to disharmony in the spheres refers to the Platonic arrangement of the universe- that all heavenly bodies rested on crystalline spheres which moved in harmony. The disharmony of one sphere would upset all ther rest. It seems that the separation of the lover and the beloved is caused by some greater problem that must be left to be fixed, in order to restore cosmic harmony. The laity cannot achieve this.
Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soule is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
Sublunary refers to the moon, which draws to mind a reference to Shakespeare- "Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, lest thy love prove likewise variable." The moon has no constance, so sublunary lovers would be likewise inconstant. Next he says the soul of the love of those lovers is sense, presumably the sense of touch. Which, in absence removes those things that created the love originally. So without touch (and therefore lust) a relationship of those lovers could not be sustained.
Brings to mind a friend of mine...
But we by a love, so much refin'd,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care lesse, eyes, lips, and hands to misse
Unlike the bodily lovers, though, he holds a love more refined; one that according to the second line of the stanza, is greater than the both of them. In addition, because they meet on a mental level, the absence of bodily desires does not destroy them.
Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate
So, because this touch isn't necessary to sustain, their love doesn't break but expands to cover the distance. The analogy used is gold being beaten to airy thinness. Gold, at the time was considered the perfect metal, the most noble. It was the god of the metals, implying that their love was the best of the loves.
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the'other doe.
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, and hearkens after it,
And growes erect, as that comes home.
Like th'other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.
I think the most worth of this stanza comes from "thy firmness makes my circle just." This is a repetitive tie in to the circle the compass draws, and to the harmony of the spheres. I submit that he is implying that their love is a sort of natural harmony; a disruption of it would disrupt all of nature. In addition, the circle is considered the perfect shape, the symbol of eternity, and the shape of a wedding band.
No matter what the distance... touch is not needed to survive. Our love is something greater than the both of us, something that holds the world together in some ways... and when you must leave, we never tarnish our love by making the leave shamefully.