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The metaphors are used to indicate that the speaker and his lover are the ruler of the world. Their bed functions as their throne in which they lead the world.
Therefore, the sun needs to shine to their bed only because it is the same as it shines to the whole world. The next metaphor strengthens the fact that the sun is
powerless because it is only able to rotate around the speaker’s room. Those metaphors are both used to compare the power of the lovers and the sun. By
stating that their bed is the sun’s center and their room is its sphere, the speaker reinforces that their love has overpowered the world as well as the sun, which is
considered as the most powerful thing in the world.
3. To Make the Love Expression Unforgettable
Love that is expressed in unusual ways remains longer in the r eaders’ mind.
Therefore, the speakers of both poems intentionally employ figurative language to make the readers contemplate what the poem actually means. Once they
understand the meaning of the poem, the speakers’ love expression is always whined in their mind.
“A Valediction of Forbidding Mourning” contains many complex love statements that are not easy to forget. This poem shows how figurative language is
constructed to articulate the speaker’s deep love. In the seventh stanza, for example, the speaker ensures his lover that they are not really separated by using
simile and metaphor. If they be two, they are two so
As twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the’ other do. John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, line 25-28
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Simile and metaphor in this stanza are employed to give comparison between the lovers and the twin compasses, both physically and functionally. Using simile,
the speaker compares the physical appearance of the lovers to the twin compasses. The simile in this line,
“As twin compasses are two,” is used to describe that both the lovers and the compasses are made up of two inseparable units. He also adds
metaphor in the third line of the stanza to compare his lover with the fixed foot which never moves though its pair wanders around.
The employments of simile and metaphor in this stanza are helpful to create complicated illustration in this love expression. By presenting the twin compasses
as unexpected illust ration, the speaker’s lover is directed to understand the
connection between twin compasses and their relationship. Thus, the lover is impossible to forget such unique contemplating statement easily.
If the speaker of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” assumes that a great love is noiseless, the speaker of “The Sun Rising” overdramatizes his love toward
his lover. He even claims that his great love toward his lover has given him a great power that can defeat the sun, ignoring the fact that he is only a human
being whose life depends on the sun’s beams. That overdramatizing love statement is the vital element that makes this poem special. The way the speaker
employs the figurative language to exaggerate his love attracts both the lover and the readers’ attention and it makes the statements memorable. As an example, the
thirteenth line of this poem contains the unforgettable exaggerating love expression.
Thy beams, so reverend and strong
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Why should thou think? I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long: John Donne, “ The Sun Rising”, line 11-14
In the underlined quotation above, the speaker employs hyperbole to exaggerate the speaker’s love. The speaker hyperbolizes his powerful love by
saying that h e can make the sun’s beams eclipsed and covered by cloud easily.
The use of word “with a wink” also adds the exaggerating sense to underestimate
the power of the sun. The ability to eclipse and cloud the sun just with a wink is impossible possessed by the speaker. He overdramatizes his love expression to
ensure his lover about how big his love is. In addition, this exaggerating love statement is effective to make his lover touched so that she cannot forget it easily.
C. The Way Donne Employs Figurative Language to Make the Expression
