English Lit
Poems from All Over - In-depth Study Notes
1. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John
• Donne Conceits are these startling metaphorsmetaphors or analogies that
shock and surprise.
• valediction" here means "farewell"
• The first two stanzas here start with a simile: "as" this, so "that."
• The first one is talking about how good people die. The basic idea hereis that
good people die peacefully (AS)
As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad
friends do say, "The breath goes now," and some say, "No:"
• Sosibilants are sounds that typically have lots of s's or sh's.
• Images-we don't needour senses quite so much. Our love is spiritual.
So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'Twere profanation
of our joys To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears, Men reckon what it did and meant; But trepidation of
the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent.
• Moving of th' earth is earthquake.
Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth
remove Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined, That ourselves know not what it is, Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an
expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no
show To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my
circle just, And makes me end where I begun.
• the alchemical symbol for gold is a circle with a dot in the middle.
• They love is like a compass.
Context: Written during the early 17th century by metaphysical poet John Donne. Donne
was leaving for a diplomatic mission and wrote this as a farewell to his wife.
Themes: Love and separation, spiritual connection, the metaphysical bond, emotional
restraint.
Tone: Calm, intellectual, loving, and assured.
, Structure: 9 stanzas, 4 lines each (quatrains), ABAB rhyme scheme.
Language and Imagery:
o Metaphysical conceit: compares love to a compass and gold being beaten.
o Cosmic imagery: “trepidation of the spheres.”
o Use of paradox: separation strengthens love.
Examples:
o “Like gold to airy thinness beat” – metaphor for an expanding but unbroken
love.
o “Thy firmness makes my circle just” – compass metaphor showing the
stability of the lover.
Interpretation: Donne argues that true love is spiritual and eternal, not shaken by
physical separation. Unlike earthly lovers, he and his beloved are connected at the soul
level.
Poems from All Over - In-depth Study Notes
1. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John
• Donne Conceits are these startling metaphorsmetaphors or analogies that
shock and surprise.
• valediction" here means "farewell"
• The first two stanzas here start with a simile: "as" this, so "that."
• The first one is talking about how good people die. The basic idea hereis that
good people die peacefully (AS)
As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad
friends do say, "The breath goes now," and some say, "No:"
• Sosibilants are sounds that typically have lots of s's or sh's.
• Images-we don't needour senses quite so much. Our love is spiritual.
So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'Twere profanation
of our joys To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears, Men reckon what it did and meant; But trepidation of
the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent.
• Moving of th' earth is earthquake.
Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth
remove Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined, That ourselves know not what it is, Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an
expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no
show To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my
circle just, And makes me end where I begun.
• the alchemical symbol for gold is a circle with a dot in the middle.
• They love is like a compass.
Context: Written during the early 17th century by metaphysical poet John Donne. Donne
was leaving for a diplomatic mission and wrote this as a farewell to his wife.
Themes: Love and separation, spiritual connection, the metaphysical bond, emotional
restraint.
Tone: Calm, intellectual, loving, and assured.
, Structure: 9 stanzas, 4 lines each (quatrains), ABAB rhyme scheme.
Language and Imagery:
o Metaphysical conceit: compares love to a compass and gold being beaten.
o Cosmic imagery: “trepidation of the spheres.”
o Use of paradox: separation strengthens love.
Examples:
o “Like gold to airy thinness beat” – metaphor for an expanding but unbroken
love.
o “Thy firmness makes my circle just” – compass metaphor showing the
stability of the lover.
Interpretation: Donne argues that true love is spiritual and eternal, not shaken by
physical separation. Unlike earthly lovers, he and his beloved are connected at the soul
level.
