20;sigh-tempests move” (breaths of air), (line 6). The speaker thinks that it would be a “profanation” (line 7) to reveal the sacred love he shares with his lady. It would be similar to priests revealing the mysteries of their faith to “the laity” (line 8), that is, to ordinary people. If they would publicly display their grief upon their separation he feels it would therefore defile the sacred love of him and his wife to be no better than the love of ordinary people. The third stanza introduces another category of surprising comparative images, referring to the motions or changes of the earth and spheres. Earthquakes are perceived by almost everyone as often as a sign of misfortune. It is understandable that many fear earthquakes because of the damage they may cause to property and land; wheras a “trepidation of the spheres” would be viewed by many ,because they don’t know what it is, to have no apparent meaning. However, in order to understand the true meaning of this third quatrain of the poem, it is necessary to consider the Ptolemaic Universe and the symbolism Donne used by the sphere. Donne was a very well-educated man who studied famous thinkers such as Aristotle and Ptolemy, and their views of the universe. During the Middle Ages and the Elizabethan Age, philosophers views of the circle and sphere were looked upon by many as perfect shapes. The main influence behind this thinking may have been due to Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, who believed that the heavens were not straight or finite, but rather circular and eternal and were therefore perfect or divine(reflecting the perfection of God). They also believed that everything sublunary (below the moon), things that are on this earth, were imperfect, subject to deacy and death. Donne also lived in a time where everyone excepted the Ptolemaic theory of the universe, which stated that the planets moved in an orbit around the...
