John Donne's A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning

A simple love poem, some might say, but John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning" is much more than a simple love poem. It is an expression of the idealistic love that Donne sought in the common realms of the Elizabethan era. The poem is a lover who must leave his significant other behind, though he states that it is not a time for "...tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;" (Donne ln. 6). Instead, he reassures his lover that though he is not with her in body, the two are forever connected spiritually. Their two have become one, and no distance to change that fact.

The poem itself is made of nine stanzas, which has a rhyming scheme of ABAB and is iambic tetrameter. Donne makes use of alliteration in some of his lines, such as "To tell the laity of our love" (Donne 8) or "Whilst some of their sad friends do say," (Donne 3). Mostly though Donne employs the assonance within the poem, with lines such as "'Now his breath goes,' and some say, 'No.'" (Donne 4), or "To move, but doth, if th' other do." (Donne 28). The meter that Donne utilizes within the poem allows the poem to flow from line to line, regardless of any hard or soft stops; it simply rolls on, much like the narrator's love for his lover. It simply exists, continuously, like the circle of their love. There is a musicality to the sound as the poem is read, as if Donne intended the poem to be a song for his mistress, nay, a hymn to speak to the depths and breadths of their love. Donne makes sure to emphasize that this was no common love: this is a love that crosses boundaries and distances, ensuring that even in death, can the two not be separated.

While reading Renaissance poetry can be difficult, due to the inflexion that Old English words had compared to today's pronunciation, the poetry reads quite easily. The apostrophes, used to edit a syllable within a line to ensure the right meter and scansion, can be difficult to read at first, such as " Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears;" (Donne 9) or "Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show" (Donne 27), as Modern English reading would want to place that extra syllable in there. Once that is overcome, there is the Old English words that have different inflexions, such as "move" and "love" (Donne 6-8) and "yet" and "beat" (Donne 22-24). To modern readers, these words do not rhyme, yet, in the Renaissance, they did; most modern readers would not know that, unless they had studied the material prior.

All in all, this poem is a love poem that most readers dream of: a love that transcends the physical form and forms a spiritual bond, deeper and greater than anything that the ordinary person can comprehend. It is the fairytale love story that little girls dream of as they watch movies. "Thy firmness makes my circle just,/and makes me end where I begun." (Done 35-36) speaks to Donne's completeness within his love of his mistress. Much like the circle of a wedding band, their love is endless and forever. Donne is confident in the love he has with his mistress, and knows that wherever he is, she is.

Donne, John. A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.