Valediction Of Weeping By John Donne
Submitted by mafiaboy3 on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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Valediction Of Weeping By John Donne
A Valediction of Weeping by John Donne
In "A Valediction: of Weeping" Donne is addressing his beloved before embarking on a long voyage. He is sad to leave because the love that him and his love will lose is so valuable to both of them, and because the lovers are "nothing" when they are apart.
Unlike in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", where love is independent of being together, here there is no spiritual pretence. The poet, in his hopelessness, wants to "pour forth" his tears right before his lover's face. He wants to cry foolishly while he still can, because once he loses her his tears will be worth "nothing". Like coins being stamped out of a sheet of metal, tears are pressed from the poets eyes, each one bearing her "stamp". Now that the image of her is reflected in his tears each one has a "worth"; to him every tear is something unique and significant. The tears even though they impregnated' with his lovers image within are still fruits of grief' and are yet another reminder that once they part however much he cries in his sorrow they will not bear her "stamp" unless she is together with him. Donne also sees a tear as an "emblem" for their love. As each tear falls to the floor it breaks, and so will their love as they are separated "on a diverse shore" break and become "nothing".
The second stanza opens with a ball image forming out of nothing into a globe. A "workman" can turn an empty object into a world "An Europe, Afric, and an Asia". In the same way his blank tears will become a world when they carry her image. Their two worlds, like in "The Good Morrow" will become one and the power of their love will bind the "two better hemispheres" together. "Which thee doth wear" suggests that her "tears" are jewels and she is "wearing" them. At this point she is weeping the tears of separation too, and they mix with his to become one. Donne uses a similar idea in "The Flea" where the...
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