A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Essay

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Essay John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is a letter written to his wife, an attempt to quell her grief and mourning for his parting to France. Though a private letter, the message that Donne conveys to his wife is clear: that the affection between two true lovers is metaphysical and can therefore resist any strain. Throughout the poem, Donne never explicitly states his opinion but rather uses a chain of extended metaphors to argue his point. Thus through a series of conceits, Donne attempts to convinces his wife that the love between them transcends the physical realm, is equivalent to perfection, and is unlike the plebeian relationships of ordinary people.
Donne begins his contention that their love is metaphysical by comparing his departure to that of a virtuous man parting from the physical world. Donne argues that the there is no reason to mourn for the departure, as it is equivalent to when “virtuous men pass mildly away” (line 1). According to Donne, the virtuous man has secured happiness in the afterlife, and thus his parting is without sadness. By the same token, Donne believes that there is no reason to mourn when two lovers part, as the assurance of true love holds regardless of whether they are together physically. Subsequently, Donne compares his parting as a “melt”ing (line 5), or simply a change in state. In the same way that melting is only a change in the form of an element, he argues that their parting only changes the form in which their love is conveyed, but not the composition of their love. Later on, their love is compared to the “trepidation of the spheres” (line 11), or the orbit of planets. Donne uses this comparison to show that their relationship is always steady and predictable, no matter what happens on the “spheres” below. By using these three metaphors, Donne argues that the love between him and his wife can never be broken by what events happen in the physical, for their love is