Valediction/Conjoined

In their poems A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning and Conjoined, authors Donne and Minty describe two exceedingly opposing viewpoints on romantic relationships. Whereas Donne feels that he and his wife share a transcendent love, Minty depicts a couple who are forced to coexist abnormally in a seemingly normal setting-a marriage. Through their extended use of figurative language, both authors succeed in illustrating their portrait of marrige; either a true love uniting the soul, or a joining of two things that should never function as one.
In A Valediction, Donne's use of extended metaphors effectively illustrate that true love unites a husband and wife intellectually and spiritually. Donne begins by saying, "As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, The breath goes now and some say No." Here Donne compares the separation from his wife to the division of a man's body and soul, the body being physical love, and the soul being spiritual. Although these lovers my not be able to physically be together, they part, "mildly," showing that their bond does not require touch since their souls are united as one. Donne continues with, "Let us melt, an make no noise, No tears-flood, nor sigh-tempests move, Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity of our love." By describing how in farewell the lovers will not cry sentimental "tear-floods," or take part in sigh-tempests," Donne shows that a sappy show of emotion in parting would only cheapen their love. Other husbands and wives may feel sorrow when parting because they need that physical closeness, however, by describing his and his wife's contrast to ," Dull sublunary lovers," Donne illustrates that their love remains on a celestial level, their souls bound together. Donne emphasizes this further by comparing his relationship with his wife to that of the two legs of a drawing compass. He states that "If they be two, they are two so, As stiff twin compasses are two, Thy soul, Thy fixed foot, make no show, To move, but doth if the other do." The legs of a compass exist as two separate components, however, they are ultimately attached to the same object. The legs must always move together, and when making a circle, the outer leg must circle the inner, thus, Donne metaphorically illustrates that he and his wife are separate, like the legs of a compass, yet always together, representing their soul. Ultimately, Donne argues with his use of metaphorical devices that true love unites not only the bodies of the husband and wife, but also their souls. Spiritual love to this depth keeps lovers together spiritually even if circumstances arise that keep them apart physically.
Contrastingly, Minty in Conjoined, takes the opposite approach to to marriage and true love. Although marriage has grown to be a normality in society, Minty takes the opposing viewpoint. An outwardly natural role is yet very unnatural. Through her use of metaphorical devices and abberant diction, Minty illustrates that marriage or conjoining(a slighty more grotesque connotaion), can be oppressive and abnormal. Minty begins with, "The onion in my cupboard, a monster actually, two joined under one transparent skin, each half round then flat and deformed, grew against the other." Here Minty compares, from a woman's point of view, as shown later, the marriage to a nasty deformed onion. This "monster" of an onion is actually two onions that have been mistakenly joined togther under one skin, and consequently, have grwon uncomfortable against one another. This comparison to a deformed onion illustartes that marriage is unnatural, happened by chance, and has since has forced the two to become "deformed" and "flat," things something as beautiful and sentimental as marriage should not be.Minty continues by saying, "An accident, like a two headed calf rooted on one body fighting to suck at its mother's teats, or like those freaks Chan and Eng, and although with slightly different circumstances, the members of the relationship were forced to make love with one another for sixty years, which according to Minty's metaphor, is as unnatural as the siamese twins who fathered twenty two children. Minty ends by stating that, "To sever a muscle could free one, but free the other. Ah but men don't slice onion sin the kitchen, seldom see what is invisible. We cannot escape eachother." Definitely an opposing viewpoint on marriage than Donne, Minty describes that to end a marriage, as if to severe conjoined twins, may save one but kill the other. She allows us to believe that the narrator is a woman by describing that she feels men hardly see what isn't surface level, thus, marriage which is unnatural in the first place remains inescapable.
Through theirs poems Valediciton and Conjoined, Donne and Minty describing their opposing viewpoints on marriage. Although Donne believes that true love only exists on a celestial level, Mity believes that marriage and the combining of soul and such is abnormal.




Bam, I'm super annoyed that I wrote this on word document before realizing that I couldn't copy and paste...]so if there are spelling errors just skip them, yes I spent my night REtyping 900+ words.