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love so that it looks more precious than common people’s love. However, the comparison between the spea
kers and common people’s love are not stated clearly. Through the help of figurative language, the speakers cover-up the
comparison in two ways: analogizing and dramatizing their love. These two ways are effective to make the speakers’ love outstanding. These
methods enable the speakers to convey deeper feeling that is implied through the employment of figurative language. Moreover, the analogy and dramatization of
the speakers’ love in these two poems need high cogitation, which not all common people understand. Therefore, these two ways enable the speakers to communicate
their love in different expression from common people.
1. Presenting Analogies of Their Love
Analogizing the speakers’ love is one of the ways conducted by the speakers of
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and “The Sun Rising” to express their love. The speakers of these two poems do not explicitly speak out their feeling
toward their lover. The speakers create some representatives analogies to convey their deep love. Those analogies do not only explain about love but also invite the
readers to participate and appreciate their love. Since good analogies should be concrete and familiar, the speakers construct
them by employing figurative language. The employment of figurative language helps to communicate the love vividly. They present concrete and familiar images
to evoke the readers to contemplate and imagine the analogized love. The researcher identifies some analogies that are used to express the love of
the speakers in both poems. Though those analogies appear in many forms, all of
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them are used to distinguish the speakers’ love from common people’s love. Therefore, the readers recognize that purity and prominence of the speakers’ love,
which is different from common love. In
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, the researcher identifies several occurrences of analogies that the speaker uses to ensure his lover that their love is
inseparable though he must leave her for a while. He also advises her not to worry because their love is bigger than any common love in this world, which common
people always glorify. The researcher explains the appearances of those analogies in following paragraphs.
In the beginning of the poem, the speaker of this poem presents the analogy about the sincerity of virtuous men in facing death. He intentionally presents this
analogy before advising his lover in order not to be sad and troubled because of this farewell. The
speaker’s intention in making this analogy is to make his lover understand that she should not be worried about their temporary parting.
As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say, ‘The breath goes now,’ and some say, ‘No:’
John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, line 1-4 The poem is opened with the description about the virtuous men who are sincere
to die. They are the kinds of men who have high moral standards and understanding about life and death so that they do not feel sad or afraid to separate
from the world. They also have faith about the existence of a better eternal life that waits for them after death. In contrast, their sad friends, who do not know
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them better, will argue and cannot let them go. Thus, the speaker, who wants his lover to be like those virtuous men, presents this analogy.
The speaker wants his lover to understand that there is nothing to worry about letting him go. Unlike death that separates the soul from the body forever, their
farewell only endures for a short time. He will come back soon after finishing his business so that she should believe in him and their love. Therefore, in the
following stanza, the speaker advises her in order not to mourn over it too much. The more she believes in him, the more sincere she lets him go.
Besides, the speaker openly presents an analogy to differentiate their love and common people’s love.
Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears; Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent.
John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, line 9-12 The quotation above shows a comparison between moving of the earth, or
earthquake, and the sphere, which he intentionally uses to compare their love to common people’s love. In this expression, the speaker analogizes common
people’s love as the earthquake, which people are afraid of. The moving of the earth, which causes that earthquake, is in fact nothing compared to the moving of
the spheres up there. Besides changing the day and climates, moving of the spheres is also potential to create bigger damage to this world. Unfortunately,
those common people are not aware of this phenomenon. They only focus on the mere thing, such as earthquake, which is not as big as the moving of the sphere.
For that reason, the speaker analogizes common people’s love as the earthquake
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and his love as the moving of the sphere. For him, common people’s love looks like the earthquake, which people assume to be great but its real influence to the
world is not that great in fact. In contrary, the speaker’s love is similar to the movement of the sphere, which looks calm and innocent but possesses a great
influence to the life in fact. In addition, analogies can also be used to convey unspeakable deep love.
Often, ordinary words are not enough to communicate the love. Therefore, the speaker needs figurative language to create analogies to expand their feeling
deeper. The analogies can make the love feeling become stronger than the feeling that is stated in ordinary words. As the result, after fully understanding the
meaning of the analogies expressed by the speaker, the lover become aware of that great feeling, which are not felt by common people.
That kind of analogy lies in the last stanza that closes this poem. After talking about many things in previous stanzas, the speaker ends the poem by explaining
his lover’s role. To make his lover realize how important she is for him, the speaker describes it through the following analogy.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end, where I begun.
John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, line 33-36 Instead of explaining explicitly, the speaker presents an analogy of the compasses
feet to explain about his lover’s important role for him during this temporary parting. In the third line of this
last stanza, the speaker says “Thy firmness makes my circle
just,” which literally means that the firmness of the fixed foot enables
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the other foot to draw a circle justly. This line indicates that the speaker needs his lover to be calm and tough during his absence. Her firmness has big influences for
him to do his job. If she does not show any grief, he can leave her with no doubt and can finish his job well.
The speaker adds another importance of the fixed foot’s firmness by stating “And makes me end, where I begun.” in the last line of the poem. This statement
is also an analogy that explains why the speaker’s lover must be faithful and
sincere. A circle is perfectly drawn if the fixed foot is firm. If the fixed foot is not firm enough, there is a possibility that the other foot can veer while drawing the
circle so that the ending point does not meet the starting point. In this statement, the speaker intends to say that his lover’s firmness is the main reason for him to
finish his job and come back home soon. Not only in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, the researcher also finds
put several analogies applied in “The Sun Rising” to show the speaker’s big love
toward his lover. In this poem, the speaker assumes that his lover is the most precious person in the world. He even claims that nothing is comparable to her
beauty and their love. To show that great feeling, the speaker presents the analogy of the sun that possesses the most important rule in the world. The sun in this
poem is described to have less power rather than the speaker’s lover. As an example, second stanza of
this poem shows the power of the speaker’s lover that defeats the power of the sun.
Thy beams, so reverend and strong Why should thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, But that I would not lose her sight so long:
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If her eyes have not blinded thine, John Donne, “The Sun Rising”, line 10-15
F irst line of the quotation above shows that the sun’s beams are very strong.
Based on scientists’ researches, the strong beams of the sun can damage retina and cause blindness for people who stare at it for a long time. However, to express his
big love toward his lover, the speaker argues that his lover has more power than those strong beams of the sun.
The speaker of this poem presents an analogy of the sun’s beams to describe his lover’s beauty. The analogy appears in the fifteenth line of the poem that says
“If her eyes have not blinded thine,” to compare the lover’s beauty to the sun’s beams. In that line, his lover eyes are analogized with the sun’s strong beams that
is potential to cause blindness. His lover’s beautiful eyes shine brighter light than
the sun, which possesses such strong beams, so that the sun is possible to be blind when looking at her eyes. That statement shows that his lover has greater power
than the sun, which people always praise as the most powerful element in the world. The analogy in that statement confirms the speaker deep love toward his
lover by implying that common people’s love is incomparable to their love for it
is even more influential than such powerful sun.
2. Dramatizing the Love Expression
