English Literature / Unit 8 ENL 0703 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
Captions available
The idea
Donne's speaker, leaving on a journey, forbids his wife to mourn: their love is spiritual, so absence cannot divide it. He compares their two souls to "stiff twin compasses": she, the fixed foot, leans after him as he roams, and her firmness makes his circle complete.
In practice
Two souls as the two legs of a compass.
Where people slip
The conceit argues; it does not decorate.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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