Literature

John Donne’s Brilliant Poem on Married Love

The English poet and cleric’s ‘A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning’ speaks of love’s transcendence over time and space.
John Donne’s Brilliant Poem on Married Love
"Lovers," between 1869 and 1870, by Pal Szinyei Merse. Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest. Public Domain
Walker Larson
|Updated:
0:00

All of us endure painful partings at some time in our lives. The Renaissance poet John Donne sought to comfort his wife on the occasion of one such parting by reminder her that love transcends physical separation.

Donne had to go on a long trip during 1611 to 1612 and wrote these parting words to console his wife. The resulting poem—one of the most anthologized in the English language, according to literature professor William Harmon—demonstrates how marriage offers a stable love that rises above the physical and unites souls even when bodies are no longer together.

Walker Larson
Walker Larson
Author
Before becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master’s in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, “Hologram” and “Song of Spheres.”