The poem A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING  by J.Donne  is arranged in 35 lines grouped into quatrains.

In the first lines the speaking voice explains that also if he is forced to spend time apart from his lover, this should not be the time for mourning and sighs. In the same way that virtuous men die “mildly” they should leave without “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests”. So the poet refuses to show his feelings in such a profane way.

Then the speaker explains that love of “dull sublunary lovers” cannot survive separation because is based in contact itself.

Poet’s love, instead, is so “Inter-assured of the mind” that doesn’t care about  “eyes, lips, and hands.”

He describes their souls as one, and like gold is stretched by beating it “to aery thinness”  their love will also experiencing an “expansion” with this separation.

He continue explaining that their souls will be like the feet of a compass: His lover’s soul is the fixed foot in the center while the other foot moves around it.

The firmness of the center foot makes the circle drawn perfect.

J.Donne uses in this poem lots of comparisons and metaphors (“As virtuous men pass mildly away”, “tear-floods”, “ sigh-tempests”, “like gold to aery thinness beat”, “As stiff twin compasses are two”…)   to describe his spiritual love.

He refuses the kind of love based on the physical sensations, unable to experience separation without losing the sensation that comprises and sustains their love.

He describes, instead, his soul unified with the one of his lover. The image of the compass reinforce the sense of union described by the poet.