A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Donne
- First Published: 1633
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Love or romance, Death or dying, Separation, Bereavement or grief, Disasters, Earthquakes, Natural disasters, Life and death, Senses or sensation, Rings
The Poem
John Donne’s nine quatrains of iambic pentameter make up one of the most beautiful love poems in the English language. In the 1675 (fourth) edition of his Life of Donne, Izaak Walton claimed that the author gave these lines to his wife in 1611 just before leaving for France. Whether the details of Walton’s account are true, the title reflects the content of the piece: a farewell. The poem is thus in the tradition of the congé d’amour, a consolation when lovers part.
The poem begins with the image of virtuous men mildly accepting death. The...
[The entire page is 1571 words long]
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