A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Although the subject matter of A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning could be applied to any couple pending separation, John Donne wrote his poem for his wife on the eve of his departure for France in 1611.In the poem, the speaker pleads with his lady to accept his departure. The speaker defines and celebrates a love that transcends the physical and can therefore endure and even grow through separation. In arguing against mourning and emotional upheaval, Donne uses a series of bold and unexpected comparisons for the love between the speaker and his lady. Donne makes his first surprising analogy in the first stanza when he compares the impending separation of the lovers to death. The speaker compares his parting from his lover to the parting of the soul from a virtuous man at death. According to the speaker, virtuous men pass mildly away (line 1) because the virtue in their lives has assured them of glory and reward in the afterlife; hence, they die in peace without fear and emotion. He suggests that the separation of the lovers be like this separation caused by death. In the second stanza the speaker furthers his comparison for a peaceful separation. So let us melt, and make no noise (line 5) refers to the melting of gold by a goldsmith or alchemist. When gold is melted it does not sputter and is therefore quiet. The speaker and his love should not display their private, intimate love as tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move (line 6). The speaker thinks that it would be a profanation (line 7) to reveal the sacred love he shares with his lady. It would be similar to priests revealing the mysteries of their faith to the laity (line 8), that is, to ordinary people. The loud display of grief upon separation would therefore desecrate the sacred love of the speaker and his lady to the less elevated love of ordinary people. The second stanza introduces another category of startling comparati...
