What Is the Purpose of the Poem “a Valediction Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne?

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John Donne wrote "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" to his wife to comfort her while he was in France carrying out business while she remained in England. Donne expresses that an overemotional show of feelings would cheapen their love and reduce it to the level of the ordinary and mundane. He explains to her that they can bear to be apart because they also have a spiritual closeness, and their hearts will never be separated. Contextually John Donne was separated from loved ones his whole life, many family members died during his life and he was imprisoned away from his wife. This shows that he was often apart from those he cared about and had to learn to deal with this, he did this by managing to still feel them in a spiritual sense. The first stanza’s purpose is to compose his lover down and to start to make her understand why she should not be sad at his departure. When Donne says “As virtuous men pass mildly away” he is saying that good, honest men have nothing to fear in the afterlife. He is using connotations of death to calm her. The use of the adverb “mildly” makes the situation seem much less scary and daunting and the verb “whisper” is a very calming word which suits the intention of the stanza. The use of sibilance is effective because the phonological sound of a repeating “s” almost sounds like the poet is saying “shh” which is a well known way of comforting. “The breath goes now, and some say no:” This line is expressing that the death was so peaceful that some did not believe it as it was so subtle and quiet. The reason the poet says this is because he is showing how like the death, she will not even realise his absence because it was so subdued. There is a definite choice of theological lexis such as “virtuous” and “souls” in this stanza, this helps to illustrate their special and scared love. There is also a caesura at the end of the stanza to allow
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