John Donne Explication of a Term Paper

The conceit or metaphor in extended though an image of the world or globe. The tears become the entire world which encompasses the speaker's life and feelings.

So doth each tear,

Which thee doth wear, globe, yea world, by that impression grow, (Lines 14-16)

This comparison also leads to the insistence in the poem that without each other the two lovers in fact cease to exist and that their essential meaning is dependent on their proximity to one another. The speaker states that Till thy tears mix'd with mine do overflow

This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so. (lines 17, 18)

The tears shed by the two lovers at parting become a flood over the globe or world created by those tears; and this flood of sadness and despair causes the speaker to lose his "heaven."

The third stanza compares the lover to the moon; with its connotations of female influence and power over the earth. This can also be interpreted as showing her influence over him. He pleads with his lover:

Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere; (line 20)

The above line refers to the idea that he feels their parting will destroy him entirely. The last lines of the stanza emphasizes the central point that the intensity of leaving one another results in an intense suffering akin to death for both the speaker and his mistress.Since thou and I sigh one another's breath,

Whoe'er sighs most is cruelest, and hastes the other's death. (Lines 26, 27)

These lines state clearly that the "sighs" of despair only serve to increase the sense of despair and loss and therefore the speaker asks his lover not to "sigh."

The theme of the above poem is clear from the explication. It is essentially a poem about the pain of parting which emphasizes the intensity of love between the couple. The development of the poem reveals a sense of increasing intensity at the prospect of loss and departure with each stanza. The first stanza, which reveals a reflection of the lover though the conceit of tears, serves to express the depth of felt love. This metaphor mutates and expands into a more negative perception, that without one another the two lovers have no existence and become "nothing." This sense of despair intensifies in the final stanza to a point where the "sighs" of sadness and loss are too much to bear for the speaker. Throughout, the poem develops….....