Valediction VS Conjoined

"It is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and vexing woman (Proverbs 21:19)" Love is never simple and has been the subject of poems since language was invented. Two such poems, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and "Conjoined" are very different. The differences in the figurative language, imagery, and tone are an example of conflicting styles of literature, in this case the difference between romantic and realistic styles and through that the difference in the beliefs of the times, namely the dramatic love and connection of the romantic period, such as in the John Donne poem "Valediction" contrasted against the feeling of suffocation that Judith Minty experiences, in the poem "Conjoined".

John Donne's poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is a romantic poem, not only in its time frame, IE the romantic period, but also in the content. The subtitle "Forbidding Mourning" is the important theme of the poem, love and loss. There are two extended metaphors supported my many smaller comparisons. The first is the comparison of love, both in general and the love of the speaker, to earthquakes and the "trepidation of the spheres" respectively. With this metaphor the speaker implies that he and his beloved have a stronger relationship that "Dull sublunary lovers...Whose soul is sense." And later separates them saying, "But we by a love so refined... Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss." This states that their love is a romance of the souls and is beyond mortal understanding. The second extended metaphor, which lasts three stanzas, compares the souls of the two lovers to twin points of a geometric compass saying, "If they be two they are two so/As stiff twin compasses are two;/Thy soul, the fixt foot, makes no show/To move..." this metaphor expounds on their love, and shows the attitudes of the romantic period towards love, that it was a deep metaphysical experience that had no direct comparison, and of course if you messed that up, you were condemned to the spinster's life, but that's another essay. Another aspect of the poem is its tone, the use of "trepidation of the spheres" "sublunary" "profanation of our joys" and "laity" all hold a metaphysical connotation, implying that their love has somehow profound theological implications. In reality it gives the poem a grand, almost universal feel. An idea that the romantics felt very strongly about,

The poem "Conjoined" by Judith Minty is also about love but it shows a different set of beliefs. her poem uses several short metaphors and doth not share in the epic length of John Donne's poem, but instead focuses on the relationship. The poem compares their relationship to, "An accident, like the two headed calf rooted in one body," and to "The onion in my cupboard, A monster, actually two joined under one transparent skin:" finally concluding with the line, "We cannot escape each other." This relationship is a step or two beyond unhealthy. This obsessive love sharply contrasts John Donne's ideas of love. While the romantic idea of love was dramatic, emotional and ultimately freeing, Minty's Poem describes a suffocating, all consuming love. Also adding to the feeling of oppressiveness is the line, "Ah, but men/don't slice onions in the kitchen, seldom see what is invisible." She is only able to write it in a poem, not explain it to her significant other. This modernist love is not dramatic love, but a debilitating love, as exemplified by the phrases, "An accedent" "other freaks" "flat and deformed" and "joined at the chest by skin and muscle" create a disgusting and biological tone were things go against the supposed "natural order." This tone conveys how their "love" has either "evolved" into something freakish, or was "born" that way.

These two poems share a common theme but are worlds apart in beliefs and ideas. The first is a romantic poem about the joys and strength of love whereas the second is a realist notion of what love often is in its crushing destructive bent. These differences in attitudes in turn affect the word choice, metaphors, and the total length. Valediction has nine quatrains creating an orderly thirty six lines, whereas the poem Conjoined has three free verses that total fifteen lines. the difference is not just a formating issue, but one that holds as much significance as one word over another. Additionally while they are both free verse, Valediction has more order in it reflecting the romantic idea of a rational universe something the modernist disagreed with completely, as they found the universe cold and uncaring. The best examples of these contradictory theories or philosophies would be the difference between Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and Hemingways "The Sun Also Rises." In the former like "A Valediction" the love is universal powerful emotion best compared to a hurricane whereas the latter like "Conjoined" is not romantic or optimistic but rather a negative outlook towards interpersonal relationships, seeing love as nothing more than socially approved lust.

The difference in the poems orginates in their respective philosphies, while the romantic belief in the power of emotion, the realist belief shows how those same emotions can hold a person down in this case, love or at the very least attachment. These changes are the only constant in language.