As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love, so much refin'd,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as it comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begun.

A Valedicition Forbidding Mourning is a poem by the metaphysical poet John Donne, published in 1633.
Starting from the title, it is clear for the reader that the poet is talking about a departure, since the word "valediction" is a synonym of "farewell". However, the person who leaves will forbid every sorrow, since it is said that the valediction "forbids mourning".
Going on reading the first stanza, the reader finds the image of a virtuous man dying, surrounded by his friends, who are sadly waiting for his death; however, they do not weep or lament.
Similarly, the speaking voice advices his lover not to cry or sigh because of his departure; indeed, since virtuous men die silently only with the company of their closest friends, the world should not know anything about their separation, so there should not be "tear floods" or "sigh tempests".
In the third stanza there is another comparison, focused on the effects of an earthquake, which causes fears and inquietude in men, while celestial movements (the "trepidation of the spheres"), which are far greater, are not so destructive. So the speaking voice wants to say that their love is greater than the events which affect the Earth, and it is probably of a celestial nature.
Then the poet states dull person on Earth are only interested in physical love, since their love is based on senses, and when one of the lovers part, love is compromised; on the contrary, the poet's love is a more spiritual one, since it is founded on the mind, not on "eyes, lips, and hands", so it will last even when the lovers are far away from each other.
The poet and his lover's souls are one single entity and the distance between them does not act as a break, but as an expansion, like a golden ingot which is beaten to make a plate out of it. If the two souls must be considered separately ("If they be two"), they are like the two feet of a compass, which are always connected; the fixed foot represents the poet's lover, the moving one the poet himself, who has to leave. The first bends towards the other only when this one is moved to trace a circle; thus the two lovers, even they are distant from each other, are always linked; and in the end the travelling lover always come back home, like the moving foot which returns to its starting position, after having traced a beautiful circle.
The poem can be considered an effective representative of the metaphysical poetry; indeed, it presents all of its main characteristics. The first simile (which occupies an entire stanza) is full of alliterations of "w" and "o" (away, whisper, whilst / go, no) which give the idea of whispering and silence surrounding the dying man; while the frequent caesuras, marked by commas, do depict the sad atmosphere. In the second stanza, the poet invites her lover not to shed floods of tears or to make tempests of sighs, thus using a hyperbole to describe a behavior which is totally in contrast with the one described in the first stanza; indeed, this emphatic behavior is typical of the laity, who should not be informed about their separation. This is also a clear attack towards the Petrarchan tradition, where the abandoned lover usually shows the signs of his sorrow.
To reinforce his point of view, Donne affirms that an earthquake (which stands for the previously mentioned unending tears and sighs) does shock men, but everyone seems not to notice greater and more important movements, such as the one of the celestial spheres, just because it is devoid of any dangerous consequence. The "trepidation" of these spheres can also be considered an anthropomorphization, since it recalls the trepidation of the lovers' hearts.
So the love of the ones who show to everyone the sorrow for a departure is a dull; it is called sublunary because it is a terrestrial love, linked to earthly things, which cannot elevate themselves to the celestial spheres. This love should vanish when the lover is out of sight; on the contrary, the poet's love has no physical bound: this is shown by the sharp contrast between the word "mind" and the other part of the body mentioned, which seem to be just an addition to a mind-based love.
In the following stanza there is another contrast between the word "two" and "one", and between "breach" and "expansions". These contrasts are built up on apparent oxymorons, typical of metaphysical poetry: the lovers' souls are two, but they give shape to a single entity, and the distance does not create a hole between lovers, but it expands love in space. The simile of the golden ingot adds value to this love.
In the final stanzas, the poet admits that somebody may not be satisfied by the previous explanation about how the lovers create a single being, and thus he introduces the famous simile of the compass. Indeed, the two feet of the compass are different, but one is useless without the other; when the feet are separated, like the two lovers, they is always a link between them, given by the top of the compass, and by the bending of one of the feet towards the other. Thus the poet explains why the two of them, put together, give life to an oneness. Moreover, the depart, as it has been said previously, it is not a hole, which causes grieves and sorrows, but it is probably the moment where love shows all his strength, being able to resist without apparently any bond, and the compass completes a perfectly shaped circle.
In this poem Donne takes great distances from the Petrarchan tradition, thus describing a different love, not based on external signs and appearances, but on an inner analysis and on the awareness that real love goes always beyond any physical contact.
However, this is a conclusion only "virtuous men", the same who peacefully and silently die in their bed, will be able to reach.