Perfect LoveAny day at the airport, you can see loving couples saying goodbye. Every day, thousands of people are forced to say goodbye to a loved one for a period of time, for one reason or another. People react to this time of separation in many ways. Some cry, some smile and some do nothing. In John Donnes' poem, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", the concept of love and separation is discussed. In this poem, Donne is able to use metaphors to show how perfect love says goodbye. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Surprisingly, this poem, which is a love poem, opens with the idea of ​​the death of virtuous men which “disappear slowly”. Virtuous men make the transition from this world to the next quietly. Because their friends back on earth know that the deceased lived a virtuous life, there is some sadness, but the friends know that the dead are now in a better place. The death, although sad, was also very peaceful. Donne likens this scene to the farewell of lovers. He believes that, like death, separation is a painful moment, but one that should be peaceful. There shouldn't be a big emotional scene; rather, there should be a calm exchange of emotions. This idea of ​​a peaceful farewell is more visible in the second stanza of another metaphor. In this stanza, Donne moves from talking about death to that of a man speaking to his loved one. The man tells his beloved that their separation must “make no noise, no flood of tears, nor sighs-storms move.” Donne uses the metaphor of storms to describe the flood of emotions that usually causes two lovers to cry and cry. This metaphor is used to say what goodbye shouldn't look like. Reiterating that it should be peaceful and calm, not like a storm. In the third stanza we see another metaphor that helps show how to say goodbye. It involves the movement of the earth and celestial bodies. The first two lines of the stanza explain how man fears earthquakes. Earthquakes make the entire earth shake. This is a strange phenomenon, which does not occur so often and therefore causes fear among humanity. This represents the type of farewell that is very emotional and noticeable, the opposite of what Donne wants. Instead, goodbyes should be like the movement of the planets. For example, “the anxiety of the spheres, although greater, is innocent.” These two lines affirm that the movement of the celestial bodies is much greater than the shaking of the earth. However, this is a much bigger movement. It remains unnoticed and innocent. Through this metaphor, Donne is saying that greater love does not necessarily mean there has to be a great emotional scene. Instead, goodbyes in a truly loving relationship should be quiet and not too visible. The next metaphor found compares the couple in love and separated to that of gold. According to the poem, their love transformed into something indefinable. Their love is not only based on the physical, but also on the spiritual. They can be separated and their love can continue to stay strong. The gold metaphor also demonstrates this fact. By separating for the moment, their love does not experience “a rupture, but an expansion, like gold on airy thinness”. Their love is malleable, just like gold. No matter how many times the gold is touched, it becomes longer and thinner, but does not break. Here it is.