Batchin’ It

The female mriordan is in Florida enjoying a well-deserved vacation, and visiting her parents. Since I decided to go on the Diakonos trip (see Ombudsman’s blog), I get to be a bachelor for 2 days. I don’t do so well on my own anymore. I miss Meredith quickly, and I try to stay busy, which usually means shopping for things I think we could use. In slightly over 24 hours, I have managed to buy about $300 worth of DVDs, tools, supplies, etc., all of which we will use, but it is funny how I get these things when Meredith is away.  It is definitely not good that this man be alone…

I’ve been thinking about this poem a lot today. I don’t understand all of it, but I love the idea of the (mathematical) compass, where the two arms are seperate but joined. I wish I could write like this:

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,

“Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears ;

Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers’ love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, ’cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

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

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th’ other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

3 thoughts on “Batchin’ It

  1. Anonymous

    this poem: either the greatest love poem ever written, or the greatest parody of a love poem ever written. ask me about it sometime. i’ll tell you about it.

    cool that you’re going on diakonos. i’m sure all your tools (and masks) will come in handy.

    am glad mere gets to go to florida. we had 60s today and green green green. i was thinking, on my way back from my excursion today) how wonderful it is to live in the land of perpetual spring (though they are gearing up for another bad earthquake, so maybe i’ll change my opinion quickly).

    i’ll try to call and catch up after you both get back! –jrc

    Reply
  2. Ombudsman

    I’m glad you’re properly equipped.

    In regard to the poem: Really, who uses “sublunary” anymore? Sheesh! Git wit it J-Dohnnnne!
    It also uses the words “erect” and “firmness” in ways that make me a mite uncomfortable.

    Reply
  3. mriordan

    Those are the aspects of the poem that English teachers don’t get to mention…

    Is the IM for “sublunary” “vmoon” (down arrow, moon)? Or maybe just “vmn” (vowels are too hard to type now).

    Reply

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