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Essay / Importance of Form and Meaning: Symbolism of a Weeping Speech
“A Weeping Speech” embodies John Donne's ability to unite form and content in the beauty and complexity of his metaphysical ideas. By carefully interpreting these conceits, or these complex and extended metaphors, the reader is able to appreciate and understand many of the underlying themes of grief and consolation in lovers' separation. The word “adieu” means to say farewell, while the word “of” adds ambiguity to the meaning of the title. Although this can be literally translated as "a tearful goodbye", the "of" also suggests that the lovers in this poem are attempting to say goodbye to the act of crying. This lyrical poem serves as a passionate expression between lovers who are apart for a time as the nautical imagery suggests the speaker is embarking on a voyage. Gives structure to the farewell primarily 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, the use of spherical imagery, and the 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 Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The structure of the complex and expansive metaphors Donne uses mirrors the lyrics themselves. The content of the poem is demonstrated through many different spherical images. The word "sphere" implies a kind of celestial perfection, and Donne clearly focused his metaphors on these spherical images in a way that idealized the relationship between these two lovers. “Tears” as “coins” immediately present their expressions of love as something meaningful on Earth, because they contain draw. However, by using spherical imagery, Donne implies that their love also has a celestial meaning. The word “Pregnant” reinforces the image of roundness and makes their multiplied tears seem positive as the product of their deep affection for each other. The “round ball” and the “globe” idealize the way in which lovers are each other’s world. This idea of 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 imagery of the final stanza: the “moon” and the “sphere”. Here the lovers fulfill the destructive aspect of the circle to the extent that she can drown him under her influence, described as being more powerful than the moon over the tides, and their sorrows can be the cause of their destruction. The idealization of their love is an attempt by the speaker to soothe his lover and stop her crying as they prepare to part. The lyrics begin with the request that the speaker be able to “express” his feelings. The word for implies his propensity both to express himself freely and to allow himself to cry. Her lover is also described as crying as her face "invents" her tears. Just as a coin bears the imprint of a face, his face reflects his tears. Donne introduces his first metaphysical conceit here by comparing their tears to “coins” and “stamps.” His tears only have meaning because they carry his “stamp” and thus testify to his return of affection. Additionally, her tears give a twist to his by giving value to his love and sorrow. This shows how the speaker attempts to comfort his lover by giving her exaggerated power. By suggesting that she has the ability to determine his worth, he attempts to console his lover during this time of separation. As they cry togetherand their tears mix, Donne makes a metaphorical connection between their tears and being "pregnant." It demonstrates that, just as pregnancy is a creation between two people, their tears intertwine and bear the “fruits” of their love. Not only are tears a product of their love, but they are also "emblems" of their subsequent sad separation. As tears flow from their eyes, the two lovers will sadly also sink into sorrow, as the love they share will be lost when they are separated on a "diverse shore." The middle stanza continues Donne's circular imagery suggesting celestial perfection. It begins with the central metaphor referring to cartographers creating a globe from a “round ball.” Together, the two lovers are cartographers in their own right since they can create their entire world in each tear. Just as a globe would have no meaning without countries, without one without the other, the tears of lovers would be useless. Together, they are “all”. The worlds they contain in their tears are everything to the speaker and when their tears mix, his tears “overflow” with the sadness of his world. This conceit marks another example of Donne's use of spherical imagery in the connection between the lover and his capacity to both create and destroy. He reassures his love that she has given the speaker her "heaven" and that the effect of their separation will be great enough to dissolve it. After speaking of a terrestrial globe, Donne enters the final stanza by describing a lunar globe, offering another image of round perfection. He claims that the lover is "more than the moon", implying that just as the moon has the power to draw the tides, it also does so by drawing the speaker's tears which 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 overtake his traveling ship. He begs her not to teach the sea its destructive ways and that he be able to escape the damage caused by the natural elements during the journey he is about to undertake. This hyperbolic imagery serves to soothe the lover from his tears. As the speaker returns to the current scene between the two crying lovers, he asks them to stop exhausting their emotions in tears. Here, the speaker adds to the complexity of their farewell by giving her lover definitive control of his own life. The speaker suggests that they are one since they “sigh each other’s breath” and share the same life. As they exhaust their emotions by sighing, they exhale life from each other. Her tears become almost cruel as she kills him with her sadness. The longer they stay in this painful crying, the more they hurt themselves emotionally. It is important to recognize that the form of the poem represents the passion of the speaker. Each line is radically varied and thus implies a kind of dramatic liveliness. Donne often mixes very short lines with much longer lines and this form gives a heightened sense of emotion. This ebb and flow of feelings adds complexity because it matches the realistic ambivalence the lovers feel toward their short time away from each other. It often seems that the shorter lines also serve as a passage between the introduction of the conceit and the actual conceptualization. In the first stanza, “For thus they are / Pregnant with thee,” connects the metaphor of the invention of their tears to tears being true products of the lovers (l.5-6). In the second stanza, “Each tear too, / That thou bearest,” conveys the vanity of the lovers as cartographers in their created worlds contained in each tear (l.14-15). The stanza.