The Expiration by John Donne (1609)
The speaker orders the lamenting kiss between two lovers to break off, a kiss that sucks two souls out and vapours them away. The speaker tells the other, addressed as "ghost," to turn one way while the speaker turns the other, so that the two may benight, or darken, what has been their happiest day. The speaker declares that neither asks the other's leave to love, and that they will not owe so cheap a death as the mere saying of the word "Go." The speaker then bids the other go, adding that if that word has not quite killed the other, the speaker asks to be eased with death in turn, by the other bidding the speaker go as well. Or, if the word has already killed the other, the speaker asks that this same word work on the speaker too, performing a just office on a murderer. The speaker notes that it may be too late to be killed in that way, since the speaker is already doubly dead: dead through the other's going, and dead through the speaker's own bidding of "Go."
By John Donne · First published 1609 · Genre: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry · 164 words
First lines
So, so, break off this last lamenting kiss, / Which sucks two souls, and vapours both away; / Turn, thou ghost, that way, and let me turn this, / And let ourselves benight our happiest day. / We ask none leave to love; nor will we owe / Any so cheap a death as saying, "Go."
Go; and if that word have not quite killed thee, / Ease me with death, by bidding me go too. / Or, if it have, let my word work on me, / And a just office on a murderer do. / Except it be too late, to kill me so, / Being double dead, going, and bidding, "Go. "
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The Expiration is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1609 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Donne
- Date: 1609 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry, Baroque Poetry, Dramatic Poetry
- Length: 164 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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Genres
- Love Poetry — The poem centers on romantic love and the emotional anguish of parting lovers, making romantic separation its primary thematic concern.
- Lyric Poetry — A short, intensely personal poem expressing subjective emotion and inner feeling through language meant to convey the speaker's immediate experience of loss.
- Metaphysical Poetry — Employs characteristic conceits and intellectual paradoxes typical of Donne, using death and religious imagery to explore romantic experience with wit and philosophical complexity.
- Baroque Poetry — Exhibits baroque dramatic intensity, complex figuration, emotional extremity, and ornate language characteristic of 17th-century verse style.
Tags
love · separation · death · farewell · metaphysical · melancholy · devotion · loss · transience · longing · breath · Renaissance