“A Tears's Farewell” embodies John Donne's ability to unite form and content in the beauty and complexity of his metaphysical ideas. By closely interpreting these concepts, or complex extended metaphors, the reader is able to appreciate and understand many underlying themes of pain and consolation in the lovers' separation. The word “valediction” means to say goodbye, while the word “of” adds an ambiguity to the meaning of the title. While this could be literally translated as “a tearful farewell,” the “of” also suggests that the lovers in this poem are attempting to say farewell through the act of crying. This lyrical poem serves as a passionate expression between lovers separating for a period of time as the nautical imagery suggests that the speaker is embarking on a journey. Donne structures the farewell essentially by exploring the intensity of their relationship and the means by which the speaker attempts to comfort his lover. The multiple meanings behind his metaphors, use of spherical imagery, and varied versification all contribute to the overall complexity of the lovers' farewell. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The structure of the complex extended metaphors used by Donne reflects the text itself. The content of the poem is demonstrated through many different spherical images. The word “sphere” implies a type of celestial perfection, and Donne clearly centered his metaphors on these spherical images in order to idealize the relationship between these two lovers. “Tears” as “coins” immediately present their expressions of love as something significant on Earth, as they contain coinage. However, by using spherical imagery, Donne implies that their love also has a celestial meaning. The word “Pregnant” promotes the image of plumpness and makes their multiplied tears seemingly positive as products of their deep affection for each other. The “round ball” and “globe” idealize how lovers are each other's worlds. This idea of ​​the spheres can be extended by understanding that they experience the circle of life – creation and destruction – within the worlds contained in their tears. This concept is reinforced by the round images of the final stanza: the “moon” and the “sphere”. Here the lovers are realizing the destructive aspect of the circle in that she can drown him with her influence - which is described as more powerful than the moon over the tides - and that their sorrows can be the cause of their destruction. The idealization of their love is an attempt by the speaker to calm his lover and put an end to her crying as they prepare to part. The text begins with the request that the speaker be able to "express" his feelings. The word pour implies his inclination both to express himself freely and to allow himself to cry. His lover is also described as crying as her face “mints” her tears. Just as a coin bears the imprint of a face, so his face reflects his tears. Here Donne introduces his first metaphysical conceit by comparing their tears to “coins” and “stamps.” His tears are significant only because they bear his “stamp” and thus demonstrate his return of affection. Furthermore, his tears give a “coinage” to his, giving value to his love and his pain. This shows how the speaker is attempting to comfort his lover by giving her exaggerated power. By suggesting that she has the ability to determine her worth, he is trying to console his lover in this moment of separation. As they cry together and their tears mingle, Donne creates a connectionmetaphorical between their tears and being "pregnant". It is showing that just as pregnancy is a creation between two people, their tears mingle and bear the “fruits” of their love. Not only are the tears the product of their love, but they are "emblems" of their subsequent sadness and separation. As tears fall from their eyes, unfortunately the two lovers also fall into grief as the love they share will be lost when they are separated on a “different shore”. The central stanza continues Donne's circular image that suggests heavenly perfection. It begins with the central metaphor referring to cartographers creating a globe from a “round ball”. Together, the two lovers are mapmakers in their own right as they can create their entire world within each teardrop. Just as a globe would be meaningless without countries, without each other, the tears of lovers would be useless. Together they are “everyone”. The worlds they contain in their tears are everything to the speaker and when their tears mingle, his “overflow” his world in sadness. This conceit marks another example of Donne's use of spherical imagery in the connection between the lover and his ability to both create and destroy. She reassures her love by saying that she has given the speaker his "heaven" and that the effect of their separation will be great enough to dissolve it. After speaking of a globe of the earth, Donne enters the final stanza describing a globe of the moon, offering another image. of round perfection. She states that the lover is "more than the moon", implying that just as the moon has the power to draw the tides, so does she by drawing out the speaker's tears that will drown his world. Here, Donne draws a literal parallel between her ability to drown him in her tears and the sea's ability to reach his traveling vessel. He pleads with her not to teach the sea its destructive ways and to be able to escape the harm of the natural elements on the journey she is about to undertake. This hyperbolic image serves as a way to calm the lover from his crying. When the speaker returns to the current scene between the two crying lovers, he asks them to stop venting their emotions in tears. Here the speaker adds complexity to their farewell by giving his lover ultimate control over his life. The speaker implies that they are one because they “sigh with each other” and share the same life. As they exhaust their emotions by sighing, they exhale each other's life. Her tears become almost cruel as she is killing him with her sadness. The longer they remain in this painful cry, the more they hurt each other emotionally. It is important to recognize that the form of the poem represents the passion of the speaker. Each verse is drastically varied and therefore implies a kind of dramatic liveliness. Women often mixes very short lines with much longer lines and this shape gives a heightened feeling of emotion. This ebb and flow of feelings adds to the complexity as it parallels the realistic ambivalence the lovers feel towards their brief time apart from each other. It often seems that the shorter verses also serve as a transition from concept introduction to actual conceptualization. In the first stanza, “For so I am / Pregnant with you,” he connects the metaphor of coining their tears to the tears that are real products of lovers (l.5-6). In the second stanza, “So does every tear, / That you wear,” carries the lovers' conceit as cartographers into their created worlds by being contained in every tear (l.14-15). The final stanza bears the lines “Don't let the wind / Example find,” to connect the lover's ability to drown him both emotionally and physically with the plea of ​​one.