A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
John Donne
In this poem, Donne used an extended metaphor to express the love between the speaker and his lover. The two lovers are compared to the legs of a compass. The two will be connected by their love just as the legs of the compass are connected to each other. One leg of the compass would stay planted. This firmly planted leg would be the woman. No matter where the man would travel, she would still be connected and attracted to him as long as she still loved him. "It leans, and hearkens after it, and grows erect, as that comes home" (Donne). In addition, the man would return home as long as the woman still loved him. "Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end, where I begun" (Donne). His beginning was his home with his lover, so his end would be the same. Through this metaphor, the speaker expresses that, no matter where he traveled, he would love his lover and would return to her if she still loved him.
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