Metaphysical poets, selected poems Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- Literary context: ideas and innovations
- Aire and Angels
- A Hymn to God the Father
- A Hymn to God, my God, in my Sicknesse
- A Nocturnall upon St. Lucies day
- At the Round Earth's Imagin'd Corners
- A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Synopsis of Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Commentary on Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Language and tone in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Structure and versification in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Imagery and symbolism in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Themes in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- A Valediction: of Weeping
- Batter my heart
- Death be not Proud
- Elegie XIX: Going to Bed
- Elegie XVI: On his Mistris
- Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
- Lovers' Infiniteness
- Oh my blacke Soule!
- Satyre III: 'On Religion'
- Show me Deare Christ
- Since She Whom I Lov'd
- Song: Goe, and catche a falling starre
- The Anniversarie
- The Dreame
- The Extasie
- The Flea
- The Good-morrow
- The Sunne Rising
- This is my playes last scene
- Twicknam Garden
- What if this present
- Aaron
- Affliction I
- Death
- Discipline
- Easter Wings
- Jordan I
- Jordan II
- Life
- Love II
- Man
- Prayer I
- Redemption
- The Church-floore
- The Collar
- Vertue
- Hymn in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
- Hymn to St Teresa
- St Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper
- To the Countesse of Denbigh
- Ascension - Hymn
- Man
- Regeneration
- The Night
- The Retreate
- The Water-fall
- A Dialogue between Soul and Body
- On a Drop of Dew
- The Coronet
- The Definition of Love
- The Garden
- The Mower Against Gardens
- The Mower to the Glo-Worms
- The Mower's Song
- The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun
- The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers
- To his Coy Mistress
- Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax
- An Elegie upon the Death of the Deane of Paul's Dr John Donne
- To a Lady that Desired I would Love her
Language and tone in Valediction: of Weeping
Ambiguities
Typically, Donne begins dramatically: ‘Let me powre forth', and he does!
- We may wonder whether ‘powre' means ‘power' or ‘pour' in modern spelling. Modern editions may regularise the spelling, in which case the ambiguity is lost.
- The same might be said for the play on ‘falls ... falst' (l.8). In the talk of minting money, ‘false' currency sounds a lot like ‘falst', (‘makes false' as well as ‘falls').
Microcosms
The real force of language is derived from the microcosmic imagery: the little worlds of the lovers and their tears. So there are dramatic phrases such as ‘overflow this world', ‘draw not up seas', ‘weepe me not dead', ‘hasts the others death'. After the emotionally quieter middle section, the language piles up into the ‘Weepe me not dead', before subsiding a little to the end.
Investigating Valediction: of Weeping
- Consider how best to read the poem out loud
- How would you deal with the shorter lines, for example?
- How would you vary the tone for each stanza?
The little world, human beings and their inner world, often seen as paralleling the macrocosm.
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