A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Analysis

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

BY JOHN DONNE

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

   And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say

   The breath goes now, and some say, No:

So let us melt, and make no noise,

   No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;

'Twere profanation of our joys

   To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,

   Men reckon what it did, and meant;

But trepidation of the spheres,

   Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

   (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit

Absence, because it doth remove

   Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

   That our selves know not what it is,

Inter-assured of the mind,

   Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

   Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

   Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

   As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

   To move, but doth, if the other do.

And though it in the center sit,

   Yet when the other far doth roam,

It leans and hearkens after it,

   And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

   Like th' other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

   And makes me end where I begun.

We have say “goodbye” people at some point in our life. Whether it is parting ways after a brief conversation or dumping them after a break up, you have to be ready to be leave each other’s presence and be on your own. In the poem, it is said in the start that if noble people can let go of their loved ones that are dying, why not us too who will just saying goodbye?  The most painful goodbyes are those who said for our loved ones. However, if you love them so much you are ready to let them go and let them explore the world. It is scary to be away from them knowing the dangers are around them when you are not with there to help them.

My father left the Philippines 15 years ago, to work abroad. He would only go back once a year. We were not close when I was younger, but I got to know him more when he stayed for more thn a month during my high school senior year. Everytime he goes back there, there is that fear of uncertainty. But he said that it is the only way ha can show his love for us. One day I will repay him for the act of love that he showed me.