of each other. The speaker explains that therefined love between he and his love doesn’t need the presence of the physical body because it is“Inter-assured of the mind” (line 19). The speaker and his lady are connected at the soul and aretherefore not really separated. In the sixth stanza, Donne again compares love to gold. Pure goldcan be beaten into a layer of the thinnest gold leaf that stretches incredibly far without breaking.The speaker explains here that since the love between he and his wife is pure and precious likegold, it can also be expanded and stretched without a “breach” (line 23). Here, the speakermeans that although he will be far away, the love between he and his lady will not break becauseit is so pure. Donne’s most famous and unusual comparison starts in the seventh stanza andconcludes his poem when he compares the love between he and his wife to “stiff twincompasses” (line 26). The twin compasses are described as two only in the sense that there aretwo legs joined permanently at the top. Here Donne is refering to the mathematical instrumentused in geometry. One leg, “the fixed foot” (line 27), is planted firmly in the centre. The other“travels,” describing a perfect circle, returning to its point of origin. The “fixed foot” of thecentre foot “leans and harkens” after the other that “far doth roam” (25-30). The speakerexplains that the centre foot (the person who stays at home) makes sure the absent lover comesback to form a complete circle because of its firmness. In the last stanza, the speaker explainsthat the firmness of the love of his lady will make him come back to where he began.Furthermore, the circle created by the journey of the compass was the symbol of perfection inDonne’s time because just like God and eternity, it has no beginning and no end. This use of thecircle in Donne’s poem sug...
