A Valediction of Weeping by John Donne
The speaker asks to pour forth tears before the face of the beloved, "whilst I stay here," because that face coins the tears and stamps them, giving the tears worth through this mintage. The tears are called pregnant of the beloved, fruits and emblems of grief; when a tear falls, that which it bore falls too, so the speaker and the beloved become nothing when on divers shores. A workman who has copies by can lay a Europe, Afric, and an Asia on a round ball, quickly making that which was nothing into all. So each tear that wears the beloved's likeness grows, by that impression, into a globe, indeed a world, until the beloved's tears mixed with the speaker's overflow this world, dissolved by waters sent from the beloved, the speaker's heaven. The speaker addresses the beloved as more than the moon, urging her not to draw up seas to drown the speaker in her sphere, and not to weep the speaker dead in her arms, but to forbear teaching the sea what it may do too soon. The speaker asks that the wind not find an example to do more harm than it purposes. Since the speaker and the beloved sigh one another's breath, whoever sighs most is cruellest, and hastens the other's death.
By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Elegy · 309 words
First lines
Let me pour forth / My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here, / For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, / And by this mintage they are something worth. / For thus they be / Pregnant of thee; / Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more; / When a tear falls, that thou fall'st which it bore; / So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore.
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A Valediction of Weeping is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Donne
- Date: 1633 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Elegy, Lyric Poetry, Baroque Poetry
- Length: 309 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for A Valediction of Weeping by John Donne
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Genres
- Metaphysical Poetry — Donne is a defining metaphysical poet; the work exemplifies the movement through elaborate conceits comparing tears to globes and cosmological phenomena, exemplifying the school's signature blend of intellectual sophistication and imaginative wordplay.
- Love Poetry — The poem's central subject is romantic devotion and the torment of separation from a beloved, expressed through declarations of emotional fusion and the beloved's cosmic significance to the speaker.
- Elegy — The poem functions as a valediction expressing profound sorrow at parting, with pervasive melancholy and lamentation characteristic of elegiac form, treating separation as a kind of death.
- Lyric Poetry — The work is structured as intimate, first-person emotional expression emphasizing the speaker's subjective inner states and vulnerability, organized in verse form to heighten emotional resonance.
Tags
metaphysical-poetry · love-poetry · separation · emotional-intensity · tears · metaphysical-conceits · farewell · Renaissance · melancholic · wit · argumentation · geographical-imagery