unconditionla love

Unconditional Love

Although the subject matter of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” could be applied to any couple pending separation, John Donne wrote his poem for his wife on the eve of his departure for France in 1611. In the poem, the speaker pleads with his lady to accept his departure. The speaker defines and celebrates a love that transcends the physical and can therefore endure and even grow through separation. In arguing against mourning and emotional upheaval, Donne uses a series of bold and unexpected comparisons for the love between the speaker and his lady.
Donne makes his first surprising analogy in the first stanza when he compares the impending separation of the lovers to death. The speaker compares his parting from his lover of the soul from virtuous man at death. According to the speaker, “virtuous men pass mildly away” because the virtue in their lives has assured them of glory and reward in the afterlife; hence, they die in peace without fe...