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John Donne's biographer Izaak Walton reports that Donne wrotethis poem to his wife Anne in 1611 before leaving for France for aperiod of two months. Anne was pregnant at the time and had apremonition of impending tragedy, which proved to be correct. The

child was born dead. According to Walton, while Donne was inFrance he had a vision of his wife walking across the bedroom witha dead infant in her arms.

A valediction is a farewell message. Since the title forbids his wifefrom sorrowing over their separation, the poet decides to presentreasons why his embassy to France will not occasion grief oranxiety. He accomplishes this through a series of conceits - similesand strikingly unusual metaphors.

The first two quatrains can be misleading since they discuss theway virtuous men die. However, the deaths referred to are afigurative element of a simile and not a literal reference to thepoet's death. Virtuous men have led lives that make their deathsomething to be welcomed rather than feared. Donne's messageis "Let our parting from each other be as quiet and imperceptibleas the departure of the souls from the bodies of the virtuous, forwhom heavenly bliss is expected and deserved."

His prohibition against "tear-floods" and "sigh-tempests" refers to

Donne's earlier poem Of Weeping, where we find "Till thy tearsmixed with mine do overflow/ This world. . .." And further on "Sincethou and I sigh one another's breath/ Whoe'r sighs most, iscruelest, and hastes the other's death." Hyperbole (figures ofspeech involving wild exaggeration) was a hallmark of poetry ofthe courtly love tradition. Donne is poking fun at the idea that onecould shed tears sufficient to cause a flood or sigh so deeply thatthe atmospheric disturbance would cause a storm or hurricane.

The second quatrain's conclusion "'Twere profanation of our joys/To tell the laity our love" makes a distinction between true loverswho are ordained members of a priesthood and ordinary loverswho are members of the congregation (laity) and not of the clergy.He made the same distinction in Of the Book, saying that "love'sclergy" speak a language that is incomprehensible to the laity. Histerm "profanation" means granting admittance of the unworthy intothe shrine reserved for priests and priestesses of love.

Switching to another metaphor, the poet describes how "Moving of

th' earth brings harms and fears." However, a mere earthquake isminuscule compared to movement of the heavenly spheres, which

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ordinary people see as presenting no danger. Thus thegeographical separation husband and wife will endure is not to bedreaded.

Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit/Absence because it doth remove/ Those things which elementedit.

The above stanza is a masterly blending of numerous poeticdevices. The assonance of short "u" sounds in each word of thefirst line reinforces the concept of stupidity (dullness) of earthlylovers whose amorous attachments depend on physical sensation.This culminates in the brilliant pun on "absence," which means notjust being elsewhere but lacking the fleshly propinquity and

sentience of "eyes, lips, and hands" mentioned in the subsequentquatrain. The love of the laity is elemented or dependent upon"things," or body parts. Such love is rudimentary, basic, andcarnal.

"But we by a love so much refined,/That ourselves know not whatit is,/ Inter-assured of the mind/ Care less, eyes, lips and hands tomiss."

Their love is a union of souls, transcending the physical,

unelemented and far from elementary. Geographical separationmeans nothing to united souls.

The poem concludes with the employment of two conceits orsuper-ingenious metaphors.The departure of the poet is not abreach or separation but an expansion, "Like gold to airy thinnessbeat." And finally their conjoined souls are a pair of compasses.Anne at home is the "fixed foot" and leans in the direction of thetraveling foot, steadying it and assuring that it will come full circle.

(And yes, there is a sexual aspect to "and grows erect.")The poem is a tour de force of brilliant comparisons. The love ofJohn and Anne is not the physical love of the unconsecrated laity.It is elevated far beyond earth in its connection with the Ptolemaicastronomy of concentric spheres. It is associated with thenoiseless and unwept departure of virtuous men's souls, withprecious metal, with geology, and the keen exactitude of geometry.

What a shame that Donne would return to England and learn of his

still-born child.