How to Write About Poetry

• 1. Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?

  a lover who is going to part temporarily from his beloved

• 2. Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? What can we know about it (her, him, or them)?

  the beloved

• 3. What is the occasion?

  The lover must part from his beloved for a fixed time, but he will return.

• 4. What is the setting in time (hour, season, century, and so on)?

  We have no specific details within the poem itself.

• 5. What is the setting place (indoors or out, city or country, land or sea, region, nation, hemisphere)?

  We have no specific details within the poem itself.

• 6. What is the central purpose of the poem?

  to persuade the beloved that the love he shares with her will not break or even diminish while they are parted

• 7. State the central idea of theme of the poem in a sentence.

  The truest love is spiritual, not physical.

• 8. What is the tone of the poem? How is it achieved?

  spiritually affectionate—through images such as the simile in the first stanza, the image of beaten gold, and the conceit on the compasses

• 9.

  • a. Outline the poem so as to show its structure and development, or

  • b. Summarize the events of the poem.

    1. The first two stanzas present a simile and a request that place the love between the lover and his beloved as occupying a plane beyond the purely emotional.

    2. The third and fourth stanzas observe the weaknesses of love based on the physical.

    3. The fifth and sixth stanzas assert that their love transcends the physical.

    4. The seventh, eighth, and ninth stanzas present a conceit that compares their love to the action of a pair of compasses.

• 10. Paraphrase the poem.

• 11. Discuss the diction of the poem. Point out words that are particularly well chosen and explain why.

  The use of "profanation" and "laity" elevates the lovers to the status of a superior priesthood. This suggestion ties in with the idea of the lovers as planets being above the Earth, and the purity of gold being superior to impure emotions.

  In line 17, the word "refined" implies pure love, but it also ties in with the "pure element" (gold) imagery that Donne uses throughout the poem. The pure "substance", water, is also used obliquely: the imagery evoked by “so let us melt*” in line 5, for example, is that of one substance slowly becoming two. This image is evoked again in line 19 with *“Inter-assurèd of the mind*.”

  In regard to lines 22-23, the phrase “endure not yet / A breach . . .” has yielded some confusion over the word “yet,” which seems to imply that eventually there will be a breach. Perhaps this relates to the title and the first stanza, and implies that the only way the lovers can be parted is by death.

  Double meanings abound. “Thy firmness makes my circle just,/ And makes me end, where I begun,” in lines 35-36 is such an example. Here the compass is doing two different things, and both have significance. "End where I begun" implies the completion of a circle as drawn by a compass; only through his wife's stability in the center, Donne argues, can his circle be drawn correctly. However "End where I begun" also implies the closing of the compass - and Donne coming home to be with his wife.

• 12. Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kinds of imagery are used? Is there a structure of imagery?

  The dominant image in the poem is the CIRCLE, the Renaissance symbol for perfection:

  the shape of the Marriage ring (alluded to in lines 23-24)

  the orbits of the planets (as alluded to in the phrase Trepidation of the spheres, line 11)

  the alchemical symbol for gold was a circle with a point in the center

  the path described by a compass (as described in lines 29-32)

• 13. Point out examples of metaphor, simile, personification, and metonymy, and explain their appropriateness.

  The first of three similes that develop the poem compare the lovers’ trust in one another to that of a virtuous man who, as he dies, trusts that he will go to heaven. The second simile compares the strength of their love to the ability of love to expand without tearing. The third simile compares the temporary nature of their parting to the parting of the twin legs of a compass.

  The first simile emphasizes the self-control and confidence that characterizes their love. The second suggests the purity and rarity of their love, and the third elaborately expresses how each enables the other to perform his or her function.

• 14. Point out and explain any symbols. If the poem is allegorical, explain the allegory.

  This poem is not an allegory.

• 15. Point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement, and irony. What is their function?

  This poem contains no examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement, or irony.

• 16. Point out and explain any allusions. What is their function?

  The poet alludes to the Ptolemaic theory of the universe in the third and fourth lines of stanza 4. The “trepidation of the spheres” refers to the slight vibration of the crystalline spheres (which contain the planets) as they gently rub against one another to produce the harmony of the spheres.

• 17. Point out significant examples of sound repetition and explain their function.

  The first stanza contains a lot of sibilants [words beginning with "s"] to create a soft, gentle atmosphere; e.g. “some of their sad friends” “whisper to their souls.”

• 18.

  • a. What is the meter of the poem?
  • b. Copy the poem and mark its scansion.

• 19. Discuss the adaptation of sound to sense

  The first stanza contains a lot of sibilants [words beginning with "s"] to create a soft, gentle atmosphere; e.g. “some of their sad friends” “whisper to their souls.”

• 20. Describe the form or pattern of the poem.

• 21. Criticize and evaluate the poem.