A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING STANZAS 1-4

The title makes the reader understand that the poet wants to talk about an invitation to not cry.

In the first stanza there is a simile that continues in the second stanza. The simile states that virtuous men die without being noisy, so it is difficult for their friends to say when they are died. They have a last inner dialogue and they're not afraid of death because they know their soul won't die.

The poet thinks that he and his beloved should behave as virtuous men. They should cry without making any noise. They should not crying to not telling the other about their difficulties.

In the third stanza, the speaking voice exploits the idea of earthquakes. He compares the earthquake with the physical love which causes pain like the earthquake instead the movement of the sky, compared with the spiritual love, doesn't cause pain. So the poet says that spiritual love isn't corrupted by the distance and  it doesn't make the lover suffer.

In the fourth stanza, the speaker says that absence is intolerable only for the "dull sublunary lovers". They are those whose love is only physical. They can't stand distance because without the body their love is destined to end, as the body is the only way they are in love.