Poetry Research Paper - John Donne - ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ 

John Donne was a metaphysical poet of the 17th century. He was born in 1572 to Roman Catholic parents when practicing that religion was illegal in England. John Donne became popular in the early 20th century. He is now known as one of the greatest writers of English prose. John Donne is from the Renaissance era. This is a period that started in the fourteenth century and ended in the seventeenth century following the middle ages. It was a period of cultural, artistic, political, and economic “rebirth”. There was a rediscovery of the writing of ancient Greek-Roman scholars and the discovery of new lands. During this period, a cultural movement called humanism began. Humanism promoted the idea that man was the center of his own universe, and people should embrace human achievements in education, classical arts, literature, and science. Humanists believed that god created unlimited potential in man. The printing press was also created during this time, which improved the way people communicate and spread ideas through Europe. John Donne's “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” shows many features associated with seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry.

When John Donne was 11 years old, he entered Oxford University and later the University of Cambridge. Due to his Catholicism, he never received degrees. During the 1950s, he spent much of his time on women, books, and travel. Most of his love lyrics and erotic poems were written during this time and his first book of poems, “Satires” and “Songs and Sonnets” were highly prized among a small group of admirers. John Donne’s brother was convicted of Catholic sympathies and died in prison in 1593. This led John to question his Catholic faith and inspired some of his best writing on religion. When he turned 25, John was appointed a private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England. He held this position with Egerton for several years and around this period Donne likely converted to Anglicanism. In 1601, John Donne became a member of parliament and married 16-year-old Anne More, the niece of Sir Egerton. Lord Egerton and Anne’s father strongly disapproved of the marriage and Anne’s father didn’t provide a dowry. Lord Eggerton fired John and had him imprisoned for a short time. In 1610, John Donne published his anti-Catholic polemic “Pseudo-Martyr,” renouncing his faith. He proposed the argument that Roman Catholics could support James l without compromising their religious loyalty to the pope. This won him the King’s favor from the House of Lords. In 1615, Donne was ordained soon thereafter was appointed Royal Chaplain. His elaborate metaphors, religious symbolism, and a flair for drama soon established him as a great preacher. John Donne wrote the poem ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ for his wife, Anne Moore in 1611. It is about him having to spend time apart from his wife. Before he leaves for France for government, business, he tells her that their farewell should not be the occasion for mourning and sorrow. In the poem, John Donne used many metaphors and images to convince his lover that even though they are going to be apart, their love will remain untainted. This poem is composed of nine quatrains, each with an ABAB rhyming scheme. It is written in iambic tetrameter which means the syllables alternate between unstressed and stressed syllables.

Metaphysical poetry contains metaphors that are often tenuous in their comparisons of one thing to another, but they can leave the reader feeling enlightened. This type of metaphor is known as a metaphysical conceit. It exhibits an analytical tone, contains double meanings, shows logical reasoning, and paradoxes, symbolism, and wit. John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is about spiritual love. In the first stanza, John Donne compares the separation between a man's soul when he passes away and his separation from his wife. The body is a metaphor for physical love and the soul is a metaphor for physical love. This is also imagery. Donne says he and his wife should let their physical love “melt” in line five and says she should not cry “tear flood” or indulge in 'sigh-tempests' He also compares himself and his wife to celestial spheres, such as the sun and other stars, for their love is so profound that it exists on a higher plane than the love of husbands and wives whose relationship centers solely on physical pleasures. John Donne also uses an earthquake as a metaphor for their parting. He is saying that earthquakes are loud and scary, but they usually quick and done. Inline twenty, there is consonance of the s sound. This gives the poem a natural flow. The poem has a simile in line twenty-four saying “Like gold to airy thinness beat” He is saying that gold can be beaten into a foil so that just a bit of pure gold will stretch a long way. The same way, their love can be stretched a long way. Donne uses imagery and metaphor in stanza seven. This stanza compares his relationship with his wife to that of the two legs of a drawing compass. Although the legs are separate components of the compass, they are both parts of the same object. If the outer leg traces a circle, the inner leg–though its point is fixed at the center–must pivot in the direction of the outer leg. Thus, Donne says, though he and his wife are separated, like the legs of the compass, they remain united because they are part of the same soul.

John Donne’s wife died shortly after giving birth to their 12th child in 1617. John then devoted his energies to more religious subjects. In 1621, John Donne became Dean of St. Paul’s cathedral. During this period of severe illness, he wrote “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. ” That same year, Donne was appointed Vicar of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West and became known for his eloquent sermons. As John Donne’s health continued to fail him, he became obsessed with death. Shortly before he died, he delivered a pre-funeral sermon, “Death’s Duel. ” His compelling examination of the mortal paradox influenced English poets for generations. Donne’s work fell out of favor for a time but was revived in the 20th century by high-profile admirers such as T. S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats. John Donne died in March of 1631. Two years after his death, his poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” was published in print for the first time. During Donne’s life, his poetry became well known because it circulated privately in manuscript and handwritten copies among literate Londoners. He became one of the most outstanding English metaphysical poets.