In this poem, the poet invites his wife, who is about to leave for a while period, not to grieve because their love is so perfect and independent from the senses not to suffer from the absence. The theme of the separation of lovers is introduced by a simile: like virtuous men they die softly whispering to their soul to go, so they must separate without “floods of tears” and “storms of sighs”, too. They must not “profane” theirs love with noisy external manifestations that are suitable only for the “laity” of love: the usual aristocratic attitude of the ideal couple is re-proposed.

The two, reciprocally sure of their feelings, are one, so the separation does not represent a fracture, but paradoxically, an expansion “like air-beaten gold subtlety”,t that is beaten gold in very thin leaves with a consistency of the air. This image clearly highlights the extension and the purity of their love.

The poet introduces the image of the compass in which the soul of she is the fixed foot, a symbol of “firmness of resolution”. The fixed leg of the compass bends towards the mobile one (the lover), when that moves away. This inclination is rendere with the verb to stay in listening, of straining the ear, a metaphor that humanizes the comparison, elliptically meaning that the beloved, staying at home, will be anxious waiting for news from her beloved. Its return correspondes to the compass which closes in the unity of the two legs. Her firmness makes the circle described perfect. Concluding the circle, a symbol of perfection, means reactivating the union of both souls and gods bodies. The physical and geometric image of the compass resolves the separation of the two lovers into one perfect unity, despite the detachment, in a final and triumphant reunion, even physical.