A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne

Full Text

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:

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.

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 our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured 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 fixed 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.

Overview

Written reportedly as Donne departed for a journey to continental Europe, this poem asks his wife not to grieve their separation. Through a series of increasingly bold conceits — dying men, earthquakes, beaten gold, and twin compasses — Donne argues that their love transcends physical presence because it is rooted in the mind and soul, not the senses.

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1-8

The opening simile compares the lovers' parting to a virtuous man's peaceful death — so quiet that bystanders debate whether he has actually died. Their separation should be equally calm: no "tear-floods" or "sigh-tempests." To mourn openly would be a "profanation" — their love is sacred, not for the "laity" to witness.

Lines 9-16

Earthquakes terrify people, but the far greater "trepidation of the spheres" (the wobble of the celestial spheres) is "innocent" — harmless because it operates at a higher plane. Similarly, "dull sublunary lovers" whose love depends on physical presence cannot survive absence. Their love is merely sensory.

Lines 17-24

The lovers' souls are "inter-assured of the mind" — their bond is intellectual and spiritual. Separation is not a "breach" but an "expansion, / Like gold to airy thinness beat." Gold beaten into leaf becomes thinner but never breaks: the metaphor insists their connection stretches without rupturing.

Lines 25-36

The famous compass conceit: if their souls are two, they are like the two legs of a drafting compass. She is the fixed foot that "leans and hearkens" when he roams, and "grows erect, as that comes home." Her steadfastness ("thy firmness") makes his journey describe a perfect circle — he ends where he began, returned to her.

Themes

• Spiritual love transcending physical absence
• Unity of souls
• The sacred versus the profane
• Constancy and fidelity

Literary Devices

Metaphysical conceit

stiff twin compasses are two — The extended comparison of two lovers to the legs of a compass is the poem's most famous device — intellectually surprising yet emotionally precise.

Simile

Like gold to airy thinness beat — Gold leaf stretched impossibly thin without breaking figures a love that expands across distance without rupturing.

Hyperbole (inverted)

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move — By naming the excessive grief he forbids, Donne acknowledges the convention of weeping lovers while transcending it.

Conceit (cosmological)

trepidation of the spheres — Contrasts earthly earthquakes with the imperceptible motion of celestial spheres to distinguish base love from refined love.

Historical Context

Izaak Walton's 1640 biography of Donne claims the poem was written in 1611 when Donne left his wife Anne to travel to France with Sir Robert Drury. The "trepidation of the spheres" references Ptolemaic astronomy, which posited crystalline spheres carrying the planets. The compass conceit reflects the 17th-century fascination with navigation instruments. Published posthumously in 1633.