Identify Literary Elements
This is the rhyme scheme used throughout the poem.
What is ABAB, CDCD......
This describes the poem's dramatic situation.
Valediction
What is: "the action of saying farewell"
This is how the speaker recommends that he and his loved one part, and why.
What is without sadness (mourning) and with understanding, because their love is so pure that it transcends the need for physicality (they are still in love even when they are apart)
The decade in which Galileo discovered Jupiter's moons, John Napier invented logarithms, the assassination of King Henry IV, and the writing of Ms. Lombardo's favorite Shakespeare play (The Tempest), it was also the decade in which Donne wrote this poem.
What were the 1610's?
"Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely run"
What is a simile? (Also Acceptable: What is enjambment?)
This is the theme of the poem.
What is the non-physical nature and pureness of love?
Trepidation
What is: A feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen.
This is the meaning and function of the hyperbole in lines 5-6.
"So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move"
What is to show that even though lovers separating feels impossibly tragic, love transcends physical connection.
It's the scientific discovery/theory alluded to in lines 11-12:
"But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent."
What is Heliocentrism (The idea that the sun is the center of our galaxy/universe)?
This is the functioning literary element in lines 22-24.
What is a simile?
This is a line that underscores the tender, caring tone of the poem.
Answers may vary
Laity
What is: Lay people, as distinct from the clergy
This is why Donne makes extensive use of conceits and images in the poem.
What is to represent in several different ways why there is no need for mourning because of the love the speaker shares is pure and unbreakable (gold, compass, etc)?
When taken literally in the context of the poem's publication, it is the subject of the apostrophe that runs through the poem.
Who is Anne More Donne (John Donne's wife)?
This is the device Donne employs through mentioning "spheres" in line 11
"Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocnet"
What is conceit?
This is the effect of the stanzaic juxtaposition, as seen in stanzas 1-2, and 3/4 -5.
What is to emphasize the transcendent, celestial, and divine nature of the speaker's love as compared to "ordinary" love.
Hearkens
What is: Pay attention; listen.
This is how the compass conceit represents the speaker's love.
What is by showing that they are connected as is a compass, and that their souls will stick together even as one leaves (just the two pencils in a compass do).
The study of converting something into a precious material, it serves as a connector between the compass and gold images used in the poem.
What is Alchemy? (The alchemist symbol for gold was a fancy O - the same shape that a compass traces out, as well as the "spheres" and "circles" representing the universe)
This is the functioning literary element in Stanza 7.
What is Conceit or extended metaphor (compasses)?
The way in which the "gold" conceit functions to emphasize the relationship dynamic. (Hint: See stanzas 4-6)
What is emphasized is the purity of love ("refined"), and how love is flexible and will expand and shift under pressure (parting).
Sublunary
What is: Belonging to this world as contrasted with a better or more spiritual one (Sub-Lunary)
It is how the Metaphysical genre contributes to Donne's message and to the MOTWAAW.
Answers can vary, but must mention metaphysical elements such as:
- Donne uses the motif of paradox and questioning in the metaphysical genre to emphasize the purity and magical nature of his love
- Donne uses the characteristic extended imagery and conceit of the metaphysical genre to demonstrate how the speaker's love will never break, and how it transcends all human form
- Donne uses metaphysical subtext and subversion of expectation to make it seem as if he is talking about death, but to further deepen the impact of the theme due to how it contrasts with the immortality of the love actually described in the poem.
Evaluate ∫xln(x) dx
What is ½x2ln(x) - ¼x2 + C?