A Farewell: Forbidden Mourning"A Farewell: Forbidden Mourning" is recognized as one of Donne's most famous yet simplest poems. It is his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love. Unlike "The Flea," in "A Valediction: forbidding Mourning" Donne professes a devotion to spiritual love that simply transcends the physical. In this poem, the character anticipates physical separation from his beloved; invoke the nature of that spiritual love to ward off the "tears" and "storms of sighs" that might otherwise accompany their farewell. The poem is essentially a sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing ways of looking at their separation that will help them avoid the mourning forbidden by the poem's title. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay First, the character explains that their farewell should be as light as the uncomplaining death of virtuous men, because crying would be "desecration of our joys." Subsequently, the character compares the harmful "movement of the earth" to the innocent "trepidation of the spheres", equating the former with the "dull love of sublunary lovers" and the latter with their love, "inter-assured of the mind". Like the rumbling earth, dull sublunary lovers are all physical, incapable of experiencing separation without losing the sensation that understands and sustains their love. But spiritual lovers "worry less, eyes, lips and hands are missing," because, like the trepidation (vibration) of the spheres (the globes that surrounded the earth in ancient astronomy), their love is not entirely physical. Furthermore, like the trepidation of the spheres, their separation will not have the harmful consequences of an earthquake. Although he has to leave, their souls are still one and, therefore, they will not suffer a breakup. If their souls are separate, he says, they are like the feet of a compass: his lover's soul is the foot fixed in the center, and his is the foot that moves around it. The firmness of the central foot makes the circle traced by the outer foot perfect: "Your firmness makes my circle right, and makes me finish where I began." the departure will simply expand the area of ​​their unified soul, rather than cause a rift between them. Here Donne beautifully compares this to the same way gold can be stretched by beating "to thinness." As Donne continues, he says that their souls are "two" instead of "one," they are like the feet of a draftsman's compass, connected, with the central foot fixing the orbit of the outer foot and helping it describe a circle Perfect. . This compass metaphor shows that Persona's love cannot be "perfect" without his partner, which shows the utmost adoration for his lover. The compass is also one of Donne's most famous metaphors. It is the perfect image to summarize Donne's values ​​of spiritual love, which are balanced, symmetrical, intellectual and beautiful in its sophisticated simplicity. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Personalize essay Similar to "The Sun Rising", "A Valediction: forbidding Mourning" creates a dichotomy between the common love of the everyday world and the unusual love of the person. At this juncture, the character states that speaking "to the laity", or ordinary people, about his love would be to profane its sacred nature, and is clearly condescending towards the dull sublunary love of other lovers. The purpose of this dichotomy is to create a form of emotional aristocracy. This emotional aristocracy created by Donne shows the superiority of their love and how his travels do not.