Marriage is a word that instills a different meaning in every person that hears it. Some people think of the religious meaning, two people joined together in the eyes of God. Others don't involve a god into their union and see it as a union between two people. Occasionally people don't take marriage seriously and just consider it the next step after dating. Whatever the opinion, every person, whether married or single, has his or her own opinion of what a marriage is and what it entails. In the poems A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne and Conjoined by Judith Minty the reader sees two different views of love and the authors use metaphors to help explain their opinions of love and marriage.
In John Donne’s poem he explains the two lover’s love with a spiritual and cosmology metaphor. The title says that 'when we are apart we must not mourn'. In the first stanza John uses a metaphysical conceit when comparing their separation to two men dying. While Donne and his wife are apart, they cannot express physical love; thus, they are like the body of the dead man. However, Donne says, they remain united spiritually and intellectually because their souls are one. He says that while he must leave and the physical bond that units them 'melts' there is no need to cry 'tear-floods' as this is demeaning to our love. Unlike the many ordinary people or “laity”, their love extends beyond the physical attraction and it doesn't depend entirely on flesh and sexual attraction which the rest of the world defines their love. Donne likened the lovers to the planets. The same perfect spheres that are different entities but always remain the same. Their profound love is greater and finer than that of ordinary people. Their perfect spherical love belongs with the great planets and the stars. The trepidation of the spheres is movements of the planets and the general sense of movement to us is earthquakes and although these cause alarm they are slight movements compared to the trepidation of the planets because the movement of the universe, though greater, does not cause alarm. By using this metaphor of the movement of planets and the earthquakes is that "ordinary" lovers may fear and lament their separation, but the lovers, who are superior to them, can take theirs calmly, for they are never really parted. The main metaphor in this poem is when John Donne speaks about a compass, how you can pull the ends away from each other but never will be fully apart. They are connected at one point, creating a perfect circle of love. The circle also suggests it will last forever. The concept of death is turned into a celebration of love through clever metaphors, imagery and conceits by John Donne. This couple is different to most because there relationship is not idealistic. It is real and very deep, the fact that they see death as a beginning rather than an end shows a lot to there feelings. The comparisons made between this relationship and that of other peoples shows it is the souls that are in love, rather than the physical beings.
Judith Minty also uses metaphors in her poem as she explains the unhappiness of a marriage gone wrong. In the very first line, the onion is called a monster. It is two onions only “joined by a transparent skin.” The skin is the joining of marriage of the two onions. The deformity of the two onions “each half-round, then flat and deformed… where it pressed and grew together” puts a slight tilt on the joining. Where the two onions come into contact with each other they have warped and deformed. This transparent skin has held and warped the two onions into the monster of one union. The Chinese Siamese twins used are another example of the deformity of marriage. “Or like those freaks, Chang and Eng, twins… joined at the chest by skin and muscle, doomed”. This line describes the agony and pain of being joined physically with someone. These twins go though life never alone with one moment of peace. To feel the agitation of knowing they can never be separated from another is beyond the comprehension of most people. Such a permanent joining of two uniquely different beings drives the image of suffering into the mind. The deformed calf with the two heads from the result of a birth defect also shows another example of marriage. “An accident, like the two-headed calf rooted… in one body, fighting to suck at its mother’s teats” shows such deep sorrow and anguish. The use of such a pitiful creature as an example again reaches inside to dig out the feelings of remorse and pity.
Both of these poems have opposing views of marriage and love. Judith Minty’s poem explains more of a physical bond and John Donne’s poem opposes that. Ultimately, the usage of metaphors in both poems helps to better explain the relationship with the speaker and how the author views love and marriage.