John Donne’s Valedictions
English Literature: John Donne’s Valedictions: ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ & ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’.
In both ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ and ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ Donne is taking leave of a lover, but while having many similarities characteristic of Metaphysical poetry, the poems convey very different moods. ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ is a passionate plea, while ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ is a gentle confident persuasion.
On first reading ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ one is struck by the numerous references to water: ‘powre . . . tears . . . shore . . . waters . . . dissolves . . . seas . . . weepe . . . drowne’. This immediately gives the impression of weeping and an outpouring of emotion, and the opening line:
Let me powre forth
tells us that the poet intends to ‘pour out’ his feelings.
Typically for Metaphysical poetry, the poem is written in a colloquial manner, capturing the tone of everyday speech. The poet is talking to his mistress expressing regret that he must leave her, and, again in keeping with the manner of Metaphysical poetry, he is presenting an argument, trying to persuade her to stop crying by conveying ideas in the form of logical reasoning.
In presenting his arguments Donne draws analogies from many sources, particularly from the industry of minting coins, and the craft of cartography. He introduces worldly analogies, even at times mundane ones, in order to make his reasoning seem more logical and more real.
‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ opens with an idea of death:
As virtuous men passe mildly away
This idea of death is not associated with fear, but with peaceful acceptance and mild sadness.
In contrast to the passion-filled images of water and the outpouring of emotion in ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’, the main image of ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ is of the stable unity and wholeness of a circle, or sphere.
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
. . . Thy firmness makes my circle just
This poem also draws upon crafts and industries for analogies, in this case the crafts of guilding and draughtsmanship.
The essential idea of ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ is the poet persuading his mistress to let him weep while they are together, for they are soon to part and this causes him grief. Using the clever conceit of likening the outpouring of tears to the minting of coins he conveys that his tears are as much a part of her as of him, and they only have meaning because they are for her:
For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they beare,
And by this mintage they are something worth
‘and thy stamp they beare’ suggests that just as a coin bears the stamp of a head, her face is reflected in his tears.
In ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ he argues that as their love is of the spirit it can never be broken. Their souls are always united, and that is all that is important.
Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion
The first metaphor in ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ compares the expression of human emotion to the force and movement of the elements on Earth.
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move
The emotions of other people are like floods and tempests, which were thought to have repercussions in human life, but their love is above that, and portends no evil, like the movement of heavenly bodies in space.
Moving of th’earth brings harmes and feares,
Men rekon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheares,
Though greater farre, is innocent.
The physical love of the ‘layetie’ is far below their heavenly uniting of spirits.
Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence.
But we by a love, so much refin’d
. . . inter-assured of the mind.
There is a significant contrast in the form of expression of the two poems, emotionally and in the verse form. ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ expresses the idea of great passion, and the versification is lively and varied. He regularly intermixes lines of five feet with lines of two, giving heightened feeling to the lines of two, and adding vigour to the rhythm of the poem.
In ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ the lines are all of four feet, giving the poem a confident peaceful rhythm. There are no urgent passions being expressed, more a feeling of calm serenity.
Finally, we can note that both poems adhere to a strict rhyming pattern, while again the pattern of ‘A Valediction: of Weeping’ is lively: (ABBACCDDD), and that of ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’ is steady: (ABAB).
