lover, the warmer his feelings become, and he soon looses his angry, confrontational tone. His mood becomes more gracious, even merciful, as he begins to realize how he benefits from the sun that he was angrily scolding earlier.“Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.”(Lines 27-28)Here, Donne continues the metaphor by offering his servant some slack in his old age. Since they are the entire world, if they are warm, then its duty is done. Then, one more time, just in case we haven’t figured it out yet, the conceit is summed up once again:“Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy center is; these walls, they sphere.”(Lines 29-30)Once more, obviously, we are told that these two constitute all that there is in the universe. The sun exists only to serve them. Nothing else matters.If there is a point that you are dying to get across, if there is a message which you think just can’t be overstated enough, then you might want to consider using a metaphysical conceit. A proper grasp of language is required to use the conceit without sounding repetitious. Obviously this is very important. We have all read or heard someone speak who doesn’t seem to realize that their point has been made. Donne knew this and welded his pen very carefully. His metaphysical conceit does not sound like someone rambling. It sounds like the heartfelt devotions of someone who believes what their heart is telling them....
