Read the Poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne” and answer the question:

1. What is the situation envisioned as the occasion for the poem? Who is talking to whom? What is their relationship?

2. What is the intention of the first two stanzas? What is the effect of the phrases: tear floods” and “sigh-tempests”?

3. Describe the effect of the opening simile about men on their deathbeds.

4. What is the metaphor of the third stanza (line 9-12)? In what sense might the “trepidation of the spheres” be less harmful than the parting of the lovers?

5. In line 13-20 there is a comparison making the love of the speaker and his sweetheart superior to the love of average lovers. What is the basis for the speaker’s claim?

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A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne 1 What is the situation envisioned as the occasion for the poem Who is talking to whom What is their r... View the full answer