Themes
Love
As the poem is basically a love letter, so love and the everlasting quality of "true" spiritual love constitute a huge portion of this poems theme. The poem contrasts two types of love; the superficial "dull sublunary love" of purely physical affection and the "love much refined" of the author and his wife. The poem scoffs at the "sublunary" love, and asserts that the love of the author and his wife goes beyond the earthly world, and will last even when the bodies of the two lovers depart. The love expressed in this poem is of a proud, mature type and is decidedly not sappy or melodramatic. The author does this to inspire confidence within in his wife concerning his departure, and argue that to mourn over him would be an insult to their profound affection.
Death
Although the poet is not dying, the opening stanzas of the poem deal with death, and Donne’s departure from his wife could be considered a sort of “death.” The poem understates the finality of death (it is “mild”) and argues against mourning because it places greater value on the spirit than the body. Even if someone dies, their sprit will live on, and their friends should not weep over the departure of a friend as only their body is gone- the sprit lives on. The stanzas comparing fear of earthquakes and “trepidation of the spheres” serves to show how physical endings pale in comparison to the vastness of spiritual eternity. Suddenly, death loses it finality!
Metaphysical World vs. Physical World
This is a very metaphysical poem, as the author wants his wife to believe in the superiority of their spiritual connection as he ends their physical one. Comparisons between the two abound; earthquakes vs. celestial spheres, physical love vs. spiritual love. The world of the spirit is the victor hands down, as this is the authors main argument to appease his wife’s tears.
