March 17 - Valediction Agenda: Four Elements of Poetry John Donne Reading: “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” Group Work: Explaining the Metaphorical Conceit Homework: Complete TPSFASTT analysis Take out: Pen/Pencil Goals: Explain the use of a conceit in poetry

The Four Elements of Poetry Line Breaks 1. Free Verse 2. Anaphora 3. Caesura 4. End Rhyme 5. Meter 6. End Stopped 7. Enjambment 8. Juxtaposition Comparison 1. Metaphor 2. Simile 3. Personification 4. Hyperbole 5. Litotes Imagery 1. Diction 2. Connotation 3. Denotation 4. Allusion 5. Description Word Music 1. End Rhyme 2. Internal Rhyme 3. Alliteration 4. Assonance 5. Consonance

John Donne 1572-1631 Metaphysical poet – Utilized metaphysical conceits Author, poet, politician, literary mind and outspoken anti-Catholic Sat in Queen Elizabeth’s last parliament (1601) Married in secret and jailed as a result Had 12 children (7 survived) Became an Anglican priest (reluctantly) and appointed as royal chaplain to King James (1616) Wife died in childbirth in 1617

Metaphysical Conceit The metaphysical conceit, associated with the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century, is a more intricate and intellectual device. It usually sets up an analogy between one entity’s spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world and sometimes controls the whole structure of the poem.

What’s in “A Valediction” Donne uses several techniques: Imagery Metaphor Symbolism Conceit Stanzas are written in iambic tetrameter In your group: Examine your assigned stanza (Think: TPSFASTT) Annotate your copy of the complete poem Use the notes to guide your analysis Consider how the “Four Elements of Poetry” are used in your section of the poem

The Title “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” What does the title tell you about: The speaker? The audience? The content of the poem?

Stanza 1 As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

Stanza 2 So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love.

Stanza 3 Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears; Men reckon what it did, and meant; But trepidation of the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent.

Stanza 4 Dull sublunary lovers' love —Whose soul is sense—cannot admit Of absence, 'cause it doth remove The thing which elemented it.

Stanza 5 But we by a love so much refined, That ourselves know not what it is, Inter-assurèd of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 

Stanza 6 Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to aery thinness beat.

Stanza 7 If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do.

Stanza 8 And though it in the centre sit, Yet, when the other far doth roam It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home.

Stanza 9 Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.

Paragraph Response How does John Donne use a metaphysical conceit to convey a specific message to his audience?