The Love That Crosses
Time and Space in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
by Claire
This poem is belonged to metaphysical
poetry:
17th century poetry of wit and startling
extended metaphor.
Valediction means farewell utterances.
The poem is about a man tells his lover
that their separation is only temporary and merely illusory because their
love is spiritual one like Platonic love.
The speaker compares his departure
to the death of the " virtuous men " while others around are not sure of
if he had already died or not,
in the second stanza, he told his sole
" so let us melt."
And than he compares tears to flood,
sigh to tempest,
and shows that he hopes there wouldn't
be any sad expression --
tears or sigh, at his departure.
He though that it's also a profanation
to tell others about their love.
In the third stanza, the speaker
says that although men reckon moving of the earth brings harms and fears,
but it's actually harmless.
In stanza four and five the speaker
compares he and his lover's love to the dull sublunary lover's love,
earthly lover's love can't stand departure
because their love relies on physical attraction unlike there's
Their love is more than physical,
so physical separation means nothing to them.
In stanza six, the speaker says that
their souls are united become one.
Although he has to go, but it's only
like an expansion of their horizon,
here the speaker also compares their
love to a gold foil.
In stanza seven, the speaker than use
a compass as an image to explain their love, that compass has two feet
but centered on one point,
no matter how far each foot goes, they
are still spiritually be together.
In the last stanza, the speaker
says that although they're separated,
his lover in the center and will make
him end at where he began,
from here we can see that the mourning
isn't necessary for them since they have already two become one.
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