Valediction Forbidden Mourning Essay

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Valediction Forbidden Mourning
By John Dunne

From each stanza choose an example and analyse its meaning and link it to an idea.

The speaker explains how their separation should not be looked upon with sorrow, but rather like virtuous men dying without complaint, ‘ “Now his breath goes” and some say “No.”

The speaker tells his lover that they should not publicly profane their sorrow for that would show their love ‘Twere profanation of our joys to tell the laity of our love.

The speaker says when the earth moves it ‘bring harms and fears’ yet when the spheres experiences “trepidation” the impact is greater.
The love of ‘Dull sublunary lovers’ cannot survive physical separation unlike the love the speaker shares with his lover which can survive due to the ‘Inter-assured of the mind’ which is so powerful it does not need ‘eyes, lips, and hands to miss’

The speaker then shows how his soul is not separated from that of his lover, rather it expands like gold, which can be spread and beaten to ‘aery thinness’
The lovers are like a compass with the speaker’s lover sitting in a fixed position in the centre ‘And though it in the centre sit,’ and the speaker revolving around her. ‘Yet, when the other far doth roam,’ Write a summary of what the poem is about.

The speaker explains that he is forced to spend time apart from his lover. He farewells her by explaining this occasion should not be for mourning and sorrow. The speaker explains the Similarity to virtuous men who die without complaint. He says they should not publicly show sorrow for that would publicly announce their feelings. He then goes on to explain that their love is so ‘inter-assured of the mind’ that the pair does not need to worry about physical separation, ‘eyes, lips and hands.’

The speaker explains that their souls will remain as one, thus they are not being separated rather expanding like gold, which can be beaten into an ‘aery thinness’ The speaker then furthers the metaphor of their souls by comparing their soul to a compass. His lover is fixed in the center while his moves around it.

The Flea
By John Dunne

From each stanza choose an example and analyse its meaning and link it to an idea.

The speaker attempts to link the mixing of his blood and the blood of his beloved ‘and in this flea our two bloods mingled be’ to the idea of the pair making love ‘A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead’, thus exchanging bodily fluids.

The speaker employ the mixing of their blood to allude to marriage, ‘This flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.’ The speaker shows that if his beloved were to kill the flea it would be sacrilege against the institution of marriage.

The speaker
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