A VALEDICTION: OF WEEPING BY JOHN DONNE

Presented by: Pamela Díaz Katherine Fernández Yesenia González

JOHN DONNE John Donne (22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an

English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems,

Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques.

JOHN DONNE His early career was marked by poetry that bore

immense knowledge of English society and he met that knowledge with sharp criticism. Another important theme in Donne's poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and about which he often theorized. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits.

The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of English lyric poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion. In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem.

STRUCTURE AND VERSIFICATIONA syllogism:

A Valediction: of Weeping, is structured into three fairly long stanzas. The tri-partite divisions suggests the form of the syllogism, an old logical form used from Greek time onwards, which consisted of a major premise, a minor one and a conclusion. Donne would have been trained in this syllogistic method, both as a scholar and as a lawyer. It gives the poems the impression of a dialectic form, and a firm logical progression of a persuasive argument, even if, in actuality, the poem really is a shout of existential pain or passion.

STRUCTURE AND VERSIFICATION:A new verse form:

Each stanza of A Valediction: of Weeping ,consists of nine lines, but the line lengths are quite different. Donne seems to invent a new verse form for almost every one of his Songs and Sonnets. Here we are struck by the short dimeters of the first, fifth and sixth line of each stanza. The fifth and sixth also rhyme together, so drawing attention to themselves, though only in the first stanza is the couplet neatly tucked into itself. The final three lines rhyme together and so draw the weight of the stanza to its ending, which is what a logical argument wants to do as well.

UNKNOWN WORDS Pour: To cause (a liquid or granular solid) to

stream or flow, as from a container. Emblem: an object or its representation,

symbolizing a quality, state, class of persons, etc.

Shore: The land along the edge of a sea, lake, broad river, etc.

Globe: A spherical representation of the earth or of the constellations with a map on the surface.

Griefe: Intense sorrow, especially caused by someone’s death.

A VALEDICTION: OF WEEPINGTheme: The theme of the poem is the departure of

the poet for a voyage. The poem expresses intense misery on part of the lovers caused by the parting.

Analysis: The poem denotes the grief of separation.

The poet is about to go on a voyage and he is trying to console his beloved. He consoles her by saying that she should not weep, as her sighs will result in the death of other. He asks her to be calm so that he can have a safe voyage and return safely.

A VALEDICTION OF: WEEPING The first stanza begins with the lover’s proclamation of

sorrow towards his beloved:

Let me pour forthMy tears before thy face, whilst I stay here,For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear,And by this mintage they are something worth,For thus they bePregnant of thee;Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more,When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore,So thou and I are nothing then, when on a diverse shore.

The poet is not asking for any physical connection with his beloved, instead he seeks to reflect and be reflected by his beloved—implying the concept of being inseparable.

A VALEDICTION OF: WEEPING The next stanza introduces a new metaphor:

On a round ballA workman that hath copies by, can layAn Europe, Africa, and an Asia,And quickly make that, which was nothing, all;So doth each tearWhich thee doth wear,A globe, yea world, by that impression grow,Till thy tears mix’d with mine do overflowThis world; by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so.

The poet brings in the concept that like all the continents are put together by a workman to create a perfect globe, the lovers together form a perfect conjugal globe.

Just like a sphere is empty without the maps, and becomes “all” only after the maps are engraved upon it; in a similar manner, the tears also become “all” only when the lover’s face is reflected in it.

A VALEDICTION OF: WEEPING Just after this the poet compares the beloved to the moon, the

source of energy which controls the tidal waves:O more than moon,Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere,Weep me not dead, in thine arms, but forbearTo teach the sea what it may do too soon;Let not the windExample find,To do me more harm than it purposeth;Since thou and I sigh one another’s breath,Whoe’er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other’s death.

The last two lines : breathing which is considered a source of life becomes a source of death, when it comes in the form of sighs from the lover. Thus, like the metaphor of tears drowning his reflection, her sighs appear to be taking away his life-breath.

A VALEDICTION OF: WEEPING Like most of Donne’s metaphysical poems,

this too plays around with different variations of conceits; complicated metaphors are drawn in to bring in symbolic implications of the emotional harm brought upon by the tears. The tone of the poem is colloquial and appears to be conversational, as if a silent listener is present before the poet.

Though the poet does not use any sexual imagery in the poem but the importance of being united in soul is established throughout the poem.

OUR POEM SHADES AND BREATH Please let be inside once again I’m losing my side But I’m definitely don’t letting you aside You three say you aint heard of me You say you aint seen me In a quite while I'm gonna let you go and walk away like every day I said I

would And tomorrow, I'm gonna listen To that voice of reason inside my head telling me that

we're no good That Im getting sigh one anothers breath. You know I am away But I’m on my way Don’t you dare loose hope I’m so far but remember I’m close And that’s the only truth you should close. It’s hard to find the perfect time to say something You know, is gonna change everything Living with the shame, It ain’t nothing like the pain that I saw on her face Now me and my pile of things at the place

That she threw out the window, Drowning next to me With the wind hurting me Being the cruelest thing life with me The shades just come make me go down on me

You know I am away But I’m on my way Don’t you dare loose hope I’m so far but remember I’m close And that’s the only truth you should

close. It’s hard to find the perfect time to say

something You know, is gonna change everything Living with the shame, It ain’t nothing like the pain that I saw

on her face Now me and my pile of things at the

place

That she threw out the window, Drowning next to me With the wind hurting me Being the cruelest thing life with me The shades just come make me go

down on me.