not realize it instantly Donne wants his wife to say goodbye to him like that calmly and quietly As virtuous men pass mildly away He says they should not cry loudly with tear-floods or sigh-tempests Their love is too special to be shown in public He then says small physical changes like earthquakes cause fear But the movement of the planets which are bigger does not scare anyone This means ordinary love based on the body is disturbed by absence But true love based on the soul is never disturbed Donne says their love is so pure that it does not need touch or physical closeness Then he makes two clever comparisons to show their love is unbreakable and spiritual He compares their love to thin gold He also compares their souls to a drawing compass Conceits A conceit is a strange and far-fetched comparison between two very different things Donne s clever use of conceit makes this poem surprising and interesting At first Donne compares their love to gold When gold is beaten into a thin sheet it becomes wider but never broken Just like this distance cannot break their love Their souls are one and separation is not a break but a gentle expansion An expansion Like gold to airy thinness beat Then comes the most famous conceit Donne compares the souls of the lovers to the two feet of a drawing compass He writes If they be two they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two One leg stands still and the other moves but they stay connected This shows that even when the lovers are far their souls are still united These clever and unique comparisons make this love poem very special Images and Symbols This poem is full of striking images and symbols The compass and gold are symbols The compass symbolizes the unity of the souls of the lovers The thin gold is the symbol of their pure and unbreakable love Moreover the images of virtuous men dying peacefully and the circle drawn by the compass show that their love is special perfect and eternal Form Meter and Rhyme Scheme The poem has stanzas Each stanza has lines called quatrains The rhyme scheme follows ABAB in each stanza The meter is iambic tetrameter Each line has pairs of syllables making a rhythm of da-DUM da-DUM This regular rhythm gives a calm and balanced feeling just like the poem s message Tone and Language The tone of the poem is calm comforting and thoughtful Donne's language is sophisticated but not difficult to understand He avoids simple love words and uses big ideas like compass gold and planet In conclusion in this poem Donne shows that true love is spiritual calm and unbreakable He uses clever comparisons like gold and a compass to explain his deep feelings This makes A Valediction Forbidding Mourning a beautiful example of metaphysical poetry It proves that real love does not depend on the body it lives in the soul