Donne's poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" opens with a plea for a quiet, calm farewell. The first stanza contains an analogy. The parting of the two lovers should resemble the parting of virtuous men from life. These men pass away "mildly":

And whisper to their souls to go.

This phrase shows first that such men pass quietly out of life and, second, that they do not resist the passing but quietly encourage it.

In the second stanza, the speaker makes plain the comparison by saying to his mistress,

So let us melt, and make no noise.

There is a metaphor contained in this line, with their parting envisaged as "melting," a silent process. This idea is intensified in the second half of the line, which makes the plea for silence explicit.

These two phrases both come from the beginning of the poem. Later, Donne displays his metaphysical qualities by explaining, with ingenious arguments and analogies, why they should not actually feel so much sorrow at the prospective parting. Initially, however, he merely says that they should not show their sorrow or, for that matter, their love. This means that the poem at this early stage appears to be a plea for silent stoicism, or perhaps caution, so that the relationship between them does not become obvious to everyone. This latter point seems to be indicated by the speaker's objection to telling "the laity our love."