Analysis of Valediction to his Book
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
I'LL tell thee now (dear love) what thou shalt do
To anger destiny, as she doth us ;
How I shall stay, though she eloign me thus,
And how posterity shall know it too ;
How thine may out-endure
Sibyl's glory, and obscure
Her who from Pindar could allure,
And her, through whose help Lucan is not lame,
And her, whose book (they say) Homer did find, and name.
Study our manuscripts, those myriads
Of letters, which have past 'twixt thee and me ;
Thence write our annals, and in them will be
To all whom love's subliming fire invades,
Rule and example found ;
There the faith of any ground
No schismatic will dare to wound,
That sees, how Love this grace to us affords,
To make, to keep, to use, to be these his records.
This book, as long-lived as the elements,
Or as the world's form, this all-gravèd tome
In cypher writ, or new made idiom ;
We for Love's clergy only are instruments ;
When this book is made thus,
Should again the ravenous
Vandals and Goths invade us,
Learning were safe ; in this our universe,
Schools might learn sciences, spheres music, angels verse.
Here Love's divines—since all divinity
Is love or wonder—may find all they seek,
Whether abstract spiritual love they like,
Their souls exhaled with what they do not see ;
Or, loth so to amuse
Faith's infirmity, they choose
Something which they may see and use ;
For, though mind be the heaven, where love doth sit,
Beauty a convenient type may be to figure it.
Here more than in their books may lawyers find,
Both by what titles mistresses are ours,
And how prerogative these states devours,
Transferr'd from Love himself, to womankind ;
Who, though from heart and eyes,
They exact great subsidies,
Forsake him who on them relies ;
And for the cause, honour, or conscience give ;
Chimeras vain as they or their prerogative.
Here statesmen—or of them, they which can read—
May of their occupation find the grounds ;
Love, and their art, alike it deadly wounds,
If to consider what 'tis, one proceed.
In both they do excel
Who the present govern well,
Whose weakness none doth, or dares tell ;
In this thy book, such will there something see,
As in the Bible some can find out alchemy.
Thus vent thy thoughts ; abroad I'll study thee,
As he removes far off, that great heights takes ;
How great love is, presence best trial makes,
But absence tries how long this love will be ;
To take a latitude
Sun, or stars, are fitliest view'd
At their brightest, but to conclude
Of longitudes, what other way have we,
But to mark when and where the dark eclipses be?
Scheme | ABBACCCDD BEEXFFFGG HXXHBBBII EXXEJJXKK XLLAMXMNN XXXXOOOEE EPPEQQQEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111 1101001111 111111111 0101001111 111101 110001 0111101 001111111 001111101101 10101011 1101111101 11101000111 111111001 100101 1011101 111111 1111111101 111111111101 1111110100 1101111111 0101111100 11110101100 111111 1010100 1001011 1001011010 111100110101 111110100 1111011111 10011000111 1101111111 111101 1010011 10111101 11110101111 1000101111101 1110111101 11110100110 01010011010 01110111 111101 1011100 01111101 010111101 1111110100 1101111111 111010101 1011011101 1101011101 011101 1010101 11011111 0111111101 100101111100 1111011101 1101111111 1111101101 1101111111 11010 111111 11101101 110110111 111101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,542 |
Words | 448 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 279 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:17 min read
- 183 Views
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"Valediction to his Book" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22631/valediction-to-his-book>.
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