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A valediction forbidding mourning

 

Donne's contemporaries believed that the heavens were perfect (reflecting the perfection of God). Everything "sublunary- "below the moon, on this earth "was imperfect, subject to decay and death. Furthermore, the planets moving in orbit around the earth in the Ptolemaic view of the universe were attached to the heavenly spheres moved or shook(9-12). In line 6, the "tear-floods- and "sigh-tempest move- refers to the moving of the earth. .
             In the third stanza, the speaker again refers to the unrefined love of ordinary people in contrast with the love between him and his lady. The upheavals in the lives of ordinary lovers on earth are earthquakes ("Moving of the earth-) that brings "harms and fears- (9). In contrast, in a more refined love such as that between the speaker and his lady, any disturbance is above the reach of such earthly upheavals. It is like the far-off trembling in the heavens. It is as if their love resided in the heavens, among the crystal spheres of the Ptolemaic universe. Even when there is "trepidation- or trembling of the spheres, it is "innocent- "it will cause no harm or damage in the world below (11-12). Donne continues to refer to the Ptolemaic universe in the fourth and fifth stanzas.
             In the fourth stanza, ordinary earth-bound lovers are caught up in the physical presence of the other person, which like all material things in this "sublunary- sphere below the moon, is subject to change and decay (13). Their "soul is sense- and "cannot admit absence- because the only way to express their love is through their five senses(14-15). Their relationship depends on the physical act of love, which cannot occur in the absence of each other. The speaker explains that the refined love between he an his love doesn't need the presence of the physical body because it is "Inter-assured of the mind- (19). The speaker and his lady are connected at the soul and are therefore not really separated.


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