"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" ~by John Donne

(#9)
When reading this poem, I found that I did not know what a many of the words in it meant. So...that is where I started. A valediction is a word meaning farewell. The poem describes when one is away from their lover and has to say farewell. Sublunary means of or relating to the earth. "Dull sublunary lovers' love (whose soul is sense) cannot admit absence, because it doth remove those things which elemented it." When the two are geographically apart and forced to make a valediction, they cannot admit that they are apart because of the sadness and mourning it brings. Profanation means having contempt, irreverence, or disrespect. "No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'twere profanation of our joys to tell the laity of our love." This line means that when the two are apart, they cannot be sad because it would be disrespectful to simply forget the many joys their love and time together has brought them. Trepidation means tremulous fear, alarm, or agitation. The diction is this poem is used to compare death to leaving a lover. Their valediction is sad; however, mourning is forbidden because what is important is the many good times they shared together rather than the sad moment of their separation.