Metaphysical poetry

Sometimes used in the broad sense of philosophical poetry, the term is used to designate the word of the 17^th century writers. They formed a school in the sense of employing similar methods and of been actuated by a spirit of revolt against the romantic conventionalism of Elisabethan poetry; in particular the Petrarcan concept. There tendency toward psychological analysis of the emotions of love and religion, there interest of novel and the speaking , there used of metaphysical conceive and the extremes to which they sometimes carry their techniques resulted frequently in obscurity, rough verse and strained image. The characteristics of the best metaphysical poets are: logical elements in a technique intended to express honestly, if unconventionally, the poet sense of the complexity and contradiction of life. The poetry of the metaphysical is: intellectual, analytical, psychological, disillusioning, bold, as board of thought of death, physical love and religious devotion. The image is draw from the common place all the remote, actual life, or erudite sources, the figure itself often being elaborated with self conscious ingenuity. The form is frequently that of an argument with the poets lovers, with God or with himself.

A Valediction forbidding mourning

-In the sonnet the poet is talking to his lover

-The poet starts the poem with a comparison. He calls some people virtuous. When these people died, their friends are sad

-The poet is inviting his lover not to cry because she is leaving

-The image of the compass is used to indicate the perfection of love

-He creates a comparison between their love and gold

-A love who passes through the senses, can't admit the absence

The poet goes on saying the lady's feet which sits in the center follows the roaming of the man. The poem concludes when the poet says that his beloved shall behave exactly as the fixed food of a compass because her fearless makes the circles perfect, and therefore "makes me hand where I began". In this  poem the lover refuses to accept the idea of being separated from his beloved. He does so by means of logical arguments. It can't deny that there will be a physical separation but he believes that is a problem for those who are only united by a sensual love. The poet and his lady instead share a love which is also not physical, it is the union of two souls, which can't be broken but is expended true space just as gold may be beaten very thin without breaking. The simile would be quite ingenious as it is , but John Donne, in true metaphysical stile, introduces another more complex simile surely his most famous. The two lovers are compared to the connected feet of a compass, just as they can be pulled far apart bit never totally separated, so the two lovers maybe physically far from each other but they will always be spiritually united. The compass' feet, however far apart, will always draw a circle, a symbol of perfect unity. The language used in the first stanza displays his high level of culture, pass away stands for to die. There is a physical rendering of death: the poet says the breath goes now. While talking about death he speaks also about the spiritual the side when he says "souls". The attention is immediately focused on "virtues men" not common ordinary people who are only interested in the physical aspect of live. Just from the second stanza  which repeats the alternate rhyme of the first, the parody of the conventions of courtly love poetry is clear  in the hyperbole "Tireflads" and "Tempest". Also the invitation "let us melt", underlines the use of exaggeration. Speaking of their love the poet uses the word profanation which recalls the religious code. In addition the contrast of the first stanza is repeated by the expression "the lady".

The hyperbolic structure of the first two stanzas is again there in stanza three when parody is reinforced. Here the trepidation caused by one of the two lovers departure is compared to the shock created by an earthquake, which brings forth "arms and fears". Speaking about earthquakes, John Donne refers to disasters and natural calamities according to the mentality of the period, when they were considered punishments for crimes committed by the community or its leaders. On the contrary John Donne says that trepidation dues to distance between two lovers is "innocent". There follows the statement that "sublunary' s lovers love" that is the love of slow witted people, below the moon that is where corruption and change reign and the moon here marks, according to the mentality of the period, the mark, the boundary between the perfect and unchangeable of the higher fears, and the corruptible heart. Corruption and fragility, together with weakness is due to what Donne calls "soul sense". Therefore if one's love is only the product of senses it can't admit "absence". Indeed absence removes, take away "the word think" that nourish "element it". The second part of the song starts reaffirming the difference between Donne sublunary lovers and the poet and his lover. The idea John Donne has of his love is that not even he and his lady "know not" what it is like. They are both sure of the spiritual love that units them because they are inter assured in the mind. As a result, they are less interested in missing. The argumentation of the poet is expressed by the connector of the sixth stanza (therefore). John Dunne says that there souls and this is the way he speaks about their love which he considers one single thing "which are one" do not bear a breach because their distance is actually to be considered an expansion. To the purpose he uses the simile: "like gold to airtimes". The poet refers to the habit to beat gold so that it becomes thin, like hair. The poems ends with the celebrated image of compass.