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in love with his lover. By saying those exaggerated statements, he means that his love for her will last forever and never fade away.
4. John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and “The Sun
Rising”
John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and “The Sun Rising” are two of his metaphysical poems that talk about love. Both speakers in these two
poems portray their love for their lover in such a way to ensure the readers that nothing can compare their love. The way the speakers express their love is
incomparable for they express it through the complex word choice and word order, which add the significances of the love expression itself.
In “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, the speaker tries to convince his lover that their separation will never separate their love. From the beginning up to
the ending of the poem, the speaker presents some illustration that analogizes their love. In the first stanza, he describes the sincerity of the virtuous men in facing the
death. The lover, assumes the speaker, should see those virtuous men and do as they do, i.e. letting him go sincerely. She should stop crying and showing off her
sadness for those things will only alleviate the purity of their love. Then, he explains further the logical reasons for his lover to let him go. He ensures her that
this separation does not really separate them for they have been united in the oneness of their love. To make her understand his concept of separation deeper,
the speaker compares himself and his lover to the twin compasses, which he considers to represent them and their short valediction.
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The love expressions in this poem are not only conveyed through the metaphorical words, but also through the artistic music in each line. Donne writes
this poem in thirty-six lines, which are divided into nine quatrains. Each stanza in this poem is written in common form rhyme for quatrains, which is a b a b. In
addition, this poem is iambic tetrameter for the syllables in each line alternate between unstressed syllables and four stressed syllables. For this meaningful and
artistic construction, this poem is regarded as a complex and rich composition that expresses a deep love.
Similar to “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, Donne’s “The Sun Rising” is also a complex and meaningful love poem. This poem portrays the prominence
of the speaker’s love. Even, to indicate how great his love is, the speaker challenges the sun, which he assumes to be less powerful than his love. This poem
is preceded with the speaker’s anger toward the sun that wakes up him and his lover. Then, he challenges the sun to show the power of his beams, which is
nothing compared to the power of his love. Thus, in the following lines, he declares that he is the ruler of the world for all kings and wealth are bent down to
him. Even, he claims that he and his lover are the center of the world so that the sun only needs to shine to them in order to be able to shine the world.
This dramatic love poem is constructed in three ten-lines stanzas. Each stanza in this poem is constructed in rhyme a b b a c d c d e e. In addition, the meter in
this poem does not have a specific name. Line 1, 5, and 6 in each stanza is iambic tetrameter because the eight syllables alternate between four unstressed syllables
and four stressed syllables. Different from others, line 2 in each stanza is dimeter
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because they consist of two unstressed syllables and two stressed syllables. Then, the rest of the lines are iambic pentameter that consists of ten syllables, which
alternate between unstressed and stressed syllables.
B. Previous Study
The researcher admits that there have been many previous researches that also discuss about love and figurative language. However, none of those researches is
similar. Though discuss the same topic, each of them has their own distinctive focus and object. One of the similar researches is conducted by Dewi Sagita in
2014. In her research entitled John Keats’ Mixed Feeling of Love to Fanny
Brawne Expressed in His Poem ‘Ode on Melancholy,’ the researcher analyzes the figurative language which is used to express John Keats’ mixed feeling in his
‘Ode on Melancholy’ by using expressive criticism. In that research, the researcher finds out that John Keats employs several kinds of figurative language
such as allusion, personification, and simile to express his deepest love to Fanny Brawne. Those figures of speech also reveal Keats’ own feeling of anxious,
delighted, jealous, sad and spirited so that the readers can discover the visualization of the love feeling which he embodies in his poem.
Another similar research is conducted by Graham Roebuck in 1994. Different from Dewi Sagita’s research, Roebuck’s research, entitled “A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning”: Traditions and Problems of Imagery only focuses on the employment of images in
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” without relating it to love or other themes. In that research, the researcher, using New Criticism,
proves that Donne’s employments of images in the poem, including metaphor,
