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Difficulty: MediumFigurative Language Devices

Read the following lines from John Donne’s poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (written c. 1611) carefully before choosing your answer:

Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it. (line 4)

But we by a love so much refined,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. (line 8)

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat. (line 12)

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do. (line 16)

In lines 9–12, which of the following best describes how the speaker uses figurative language to characterize the separation of the lovers?

  1. A
    The speaker uses the gold image to highlight the rare and precious quality of the beloved's physical beauty.
  2. B
    The speaker compares their souls to gold to suggest that physical distance will thin and weaken their emotional connection.
  3. C
    The speaker references gold to express the poet's own personal anxiety about the financial costs of his journey.
  4. D
    The speaker uses the line break after "endure not yet" to argue that the lovers will be unable to survive the separation.
  5. The speaker uses the simile of beaten gold to show that their spiritual connection will expand rather than break.Answer

Answer

The speaker uses the simile of beaten gold to show that their spiritual connection will expand rather than break.
The option describing the simile of beaten gold as an expansion of spiritual connection is correct. In lines 9–12, the speaker argues that the lovers' souls are unified ('one'), meaning their separation will not result in a 'breach' (a break or rupture) but rather an 'expansion.' By comparing their souls to gold being beaten to 'airy thinness,' the speaker emphasizes the malleability and resilience of their bond, which stretches to accommodate distance without breaking.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the context of lines 9–12 within the passage, noting the relationship between 'souls,' 'breach,' 'expansion,' and 'gold.'
The speaker asserts that their two souls are one and will experience an 'expansion' rather than a 'breach' (break) during separation.
To establish the conceptual framework of the metaphysical conceit before evaluating the function of the specific simile.
2
Interpret the simile 'Like gold to airy thinness beat' in the context of the expansion described in the previous lines.
Gold is highly malleable and can be beaten into extremely thin gold leaf without tearing, symbolizing how their souls can stretch over distance while remaining unbroken and unified.
To determine the precise figurative function of the simile and match it against the answer choices.

Key Concept

Metaphysical conceit and figurative language function in poetry
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Topics

Figurative Language Devices

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