Question

In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," to what does the speaker compare him and his lover when they must be apart?

A
to two shoes on a dancer

B
to two birds that mate for life

C
to the two legs of a compass

D
to wheels on a cart

Answer 1

C. To the two legs of a compass.

Step-by-step explanation:

John Donne's poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is a metaphysical poem about the parting of two lovers. This farewell speech of the poet and his wife is a form of forbidding a person to be sad at the parting.

Lines 25 to 28 goes as follows-

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.

It is here that the speaker makes a comparison between him and his lover and the two feet/ legs of a compass. Thus, the correct answer is option C.