As I sit here huddling up to my space heater so my little fingers do not freeze off I am thinking of what I should write about next. While I don't want to be a bore, I do want to write about my own interests. That's the point of this thing, no? So what will I choose to write for tonight? Well, it should be something I find personally interesting, that's obvious, but I also want it bear some universal appeal. I've got it. Poetry! She's the lucky winner folks. So here you have it, Poetry. Let's begin shall we? (Please don't mind my melodrama; I've recently had some serious sips of Limoncello and am very peppered.)
While it is common knowledge (if you've kept up with my blogs) that I am a student, it would help if you knew that I am an English major and, being that I am, I have a deep love for poetry. Yet, up until this last spring, I never knew what a poem could do to a person. I never walked into the mind of a poet, I never plunged myself into their hearts, listened to their words or saw with their eyes. However, last April that all changed. Last spring I took a Literary Studies course and in it everyone was required to blindly choose a poem, explicate it and then present the poem to the class. The poem I chose was one written by one of my now favorite poets, John Donne. The poem I chose happened to be one of Donne's most noted pieces; the title of the poem is "Valediction: Forbidden Mourning."
You wouldn't believe how much this poem touched me. I discussed it with family, friends, co-workers. It blew me away! In point of fact, it even drove me to read it at a public poetry reading at my school. This I can tell you is so unlike me, but again, it affected me so deeply that I wanted to share this experience with others.
In this poem I discovered what it was to enter into the metaphysical world of a poet. By metaphysical I mean something that "investigates the world by rational discussion of its phenomena rather than by intuition or mysticism." (Anniina Jokinen "17th C. English Literature : Metaphysical Poets.") In plain English, it is something that compares people, experiences or thoughts using paradoxical expressions and intellectual wit.
The layers of meaning enveloping this particular poem staggers the mind. Once you start to see the poem in its proper perspective the mouth drops and the mind stops to bask in the glory of this ingenious work. To attempt to explain what it was like for me to explicate this poem I'll give you an analogy. The experience reminded me of those pictures at mall kiosks in the early 90's. The picture, when you first looked at it, was a bunch of replicated lines with splotches of color interwoven amidst them. If you're twenty four or older you'll know what I'm talking about. Yet, when you'd stare at it the image long enough, you're eyes would cross and then you'd see a three dimensional figure come to life. It was really cool once your eyes adjusted and you could see the picture for the reality it was. Unfortunately I don't think they make them anymore. Anyway, that adjusting of the eyes is something of what I felt happen to me, only in a metaphysical (meaning beyond the physical) sense, when I explicated this poem. Now enough talk. Here it is....
Valediction: Forbidden Mourning
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," 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
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves 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 aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre 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.
I don't want to leave you reading this poem at face value without further explaining what it means. First you need to know the context of the poem. For one thing, John wrote this to his wife, Anne, as he was leaving to go an a three month holiday to France with some buddies. This poem therefore reflects a good bye to her and reveals Donne's impression of what real love is and what their love means to him. What you are about to read is an edited version of the explication I presented. Forgive my contrast in tonality, I had to be formal.
Donne, having had great knowledge of alchemy and astronomy, uses related images in his poem to symbolize the profound level of love held between he and his wife. These images of circular realities recur throughout the poem. Planets, compasses, gold, whose symbol is a circle with a point in the center , circular rings, spheres... All speak of a harmony, a unity, a perfect completion. Historically, the circle was symbolic of eternity and perfection representative of the Holy Trinity. It would not be so unlike Donne to have compared his love to that of the Trinity as he understood the depth and beauty of God's love and perfection, and wished to compare his own love with his wife the Theirs. Yes, Donne was a melancholic.
In the first stanza Donne makes the distinction between man and the soul. The body "whisper[s] to their souls to go", as though in death. The separation of two intimately related beings. One being dead without the other. Yet as "the virtuous men" (the strong, the faithful man) "passes mildly away", he knows he can go, resting assure that his love is secure with his beloved, unlike those who when the "breath goes now some say no." In other words, his relationship withstands all absence in silent peace and "makes no noise." This point is reaffirmed when Donne writes "no tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move." Tears are not necessary for a love as sublime as theirs.
"[T]were profanation of our joys to tell the laity our love." By this he reveals how their love is so sacred, so soaring above the natural layer of affection, that it is not worthy of being shared among the commoner, the "laity", as it would tinge the virtue of the love they share.
The weakness of bodily love, "whose soul is sense", results in "harms and fears". These relationships cannot sustain a separation without great aversion. Conversely, when there exists a parting between those who "love in the mind", represented by the moving of planets or "spheres", in times of "trepidation" which is "greater far," since it is above that of the common man, there is no harm or great loss, since it is superior, as it "is innocent" i.e. harmless, trusted. No distance can shake their unity no matter how far they part. His love, like the graceful planets, moves peacefully even when having to span great distance.
In the fourth stanza Donne reiterates this point. He makes the case that worldly love "dull sublunary lovers love" like the earth is unpredictable, subject to disaster. For when one "[d]oth remov[es] that which elemented it" it crumbles i.e. without the physical presence of the other loves, the love shatters and ends in disaster.
Yet his love "so much refined" that they themselves cannot fathom its depths, "that ourselves know not what it is," do not depend on the physical presence of the other to exist in their love, "[c]are less, eyes, lips and hands to miss." It is not in the body that her seeks his love but in her soul.
"Our two souls therefore which are one," alluding to the Catholic teaching that in marriage the two shall become as one flesh, states how one may leave and yet remain still near. As by beating gold it expands, so does the love of lovers when separated.
He further uses the symbol of the compass to illustrate this point. This, I believe, is one of the most beautiful metaphors Donne uses to describe their relationship. Donne states that if one were to say they were two, then they are two like the points of a compass are two. The one stays put, "thy soul, the fixed foot makes no show to move," yet follows from afar should the other "lead."
After having done some research on the subject, I discovered that the compass he is referring to is not a map compass, it is a drawing compass. This makes more sense when comparing his words to his relationship. "Though it in the center sit, and yet the other far doth roam..." "and comes erect as that comes home". She being his stability ( i.e. the needle in the center) stays while he goes abroad, yet in truth they never separate just as two points never separate on the compass. He being like the pencil foot, "obliquely run[s]" and is made "just" i.e. perfect as a circle is drawn perfect only because the center needle holds its ground while the other traces around it making him "end where he begun". After coming full circle he finds perfection, he finds unity and he finds his one true love, his wife, upon his return from his journey.
I know this was a mindful and perhaps even poorly worded, but I hope you persevered with it because the beauty it contains is truly praiseworthy. We can learn much from it by desiring love that is real not fleeting; love that is pure not sensate; love that is just not bent on the perverse. So if any of you out there tonight have nothing better to do, pick up an old book of poems and try to experience the world of a poet. It's worth the effort even if you hate poems. You never know what goodies you may find. Well, I've met my bedtime so it's time to sign off. Here's wishing everyone a holy and blessed Advent. Buona Notte y'all!
