A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning is one of Donne's most famous and simplest poems and also probably his most direct statement of his ideal of spiritual love.
The title can anticipate the content of the poetry: it will probably be referred to the theme of separation between two lovers, but the poet invites his beloved not to separate with pain. So, in the poem, Donne sees the act of farewell as the natural extension of himself toward the object of his love. His beloved is like a fixed point of a compass from which the auction, the ego of the poet, one can not dismiss. The nine stanzas of this Valediction have an ABAB rhyme scheme.
The poem is essentially a sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing a way of looking at their separation that will help them to avoid the mourning forbidden by the poem's title.
The first stanza has the function to explain the different point of view of men. On one hand there are good men, who die peacefully because they lived a life that pleased God. They accept death without complaining, saying it is time for their souls to move on to eternity. But, on the other hand there are some of their sad friends at the bedside acknowledge death as imminent, and some say, no, he may live awhile longer.
The second stanza has the function to make a comparison between the separation of the poet from his beloved and the good men's death.
In the third and fourth stanza the poet compares the movements of the sun and other heavenly bodies (trepidation of the spheres), which cause no fear, because these movements are natural and harmless to the bodies of two beloveds.
The fifth stanza, instead, has the function to explain the simile: like the rumbling earth, the dull sublunary, lovers are all physical, unable to experience separation without losing the sensation that comprises and sustains their love. But the spiritual lovers "Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss," because, like the trepidation (vibration) of the spheres, their love is not wholly physical. Also, like the trepidation of the spheres, their movement will not have the harmful consequences of an earthquake.
In the next stanza there is another simile: the poet compares two lovers's souls with the gold. In fact he says even though their bodies become separated and must live apart for a time in different parts of the world, their souls remain united like gold which, when beaten with a hammer, widens and lengthens.
In conclusion, in the last three stanzas, the poet compares him and his beloved to the legs of a compass. The compass is a metaphor, which describes the interconnectedness between lovers. Although lovers retain their souls, they are divided into two parts, similar to that of a compass. The compass is linked at the top, and works in unison. When the compass draws a circle, one point remains stationary in the center, at a fixed point, which ensures the other will complete its circuit. Similar to a compass, if one of the lovers remains home, it ensures the return of the other. Since the lover will return home, mourning is inappropriate.

The main themes of the poetry are:
- Separation of lovers: the theme from which springs the poem. It is an invitation to avoid suffering, because the love of the poet and his lady love is not a "mundane" love, but it is a spiritual love, which cannot really suffer the separation.
- Spiritual love: it expresses the concept of love for the poet. In his opinion, his spiritual feeling is something that is more than an earthly vision. For these reasons a noble feeling cannot be hit or questioned by a separation.