illustration of a person standing at the center of a circle and another person at the perimeter walking around, the two of them connected by a compass

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

by John Donne

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Topics for Further Study

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Read William Butler Yeats' "The Second Coming." What opinion would the speaker of Yeats' poem have regarding the imagery used by Donne?

Contrast the concepts presented in this poem with those in William Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up." What insights do the two poems provide about youth and nature? Does the 175-year gap between their publications influence your interpretation of their meanings?

Do you concur with the notions in the fourth stanza? Share your thoughts on individuals who "cannot admit absence."

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