Valediction vs. Conjoined

woo hoo for not procrastinating!

In the poem’s, Conjoined, by Judith Minty, and, A Valediction, by John Donne, both authors employ figurative language to convey each of their opposing ideas of relationships. The use of diction, metaphors, and imagery are all used to reveal Minty’s opinion of relationships being a burden and an unnatural occurrence. Similarly, these same rhetorical devices are used to establish Donne’s viewpoint as his love being divine and incomprehensible to, “dull sublunary lovers.”
Both poems employ a sense of diction that helps to convey to the reader his/her ideas about relationships. In Minty’s, Conjoined, we can see through her use of diction that she believes relationships are unnecessary and that ideas like marriage aren’t natural. For example, Minty compares two conjoined onions to marriage, calling it, “a monster,” where, “each [is] half-round, then flat and deformed.” Within the very first line of the poem, Minty compares what most people think of to be a holy, sacred thing, to that of a monster. This blunt statement is followed by saying that the onion is, “flat and deformed” suggesting that there is nothing exciting about marriage, and that it is definitely not natural.
In the second stanza, Minty refers to the conjoined twins of Chang and Eng as, “freaks.” It’s not a natural thing for two humans to be, “joined at the chest by skin and muscle,” so she claims it a fair thing to say they are, “doomed to live, even make love, together for sixty years.” The words, “freaks” and, “doomed” certainly don’t convey a, “happily ever after” tone, and this is precisely what Minty wishes to accomplish through the use of these words. Furthermore, just by inserting the phrase, “even make love” puts a disturbing image in the mind of the reader. Through this imagery, Minty attempts to prove that marriage too, can be as disturbing as the image previously imagined.
Minty uses imagery and diction to convey marriage as an abnormality, while Donne uses these same techniques to produce the opposite effect. Within the many metaphor’s that Donne uses, he often refers to the universe, or some kind of astronomical term. For example, he talks about how, “the earth brings harm and fears…but trepidation of the spheres though greater far, is innocent.” He also says, “Dull sublunary lovers’ love…” making light of lovers whose love is within the earth’s atmosphere. Through referencing these terms, the reader gets a sense of divinity, and feels that some how the speaker’s love is more pure than anyone else’s because of that.
Not only do Donne and Minty use diction in a way that helps them to convey their views on relationships, they also use metaphors that are relevant in making their argurment stronger. For example, Minty compares a, “two-headed calf” to what some would call, an eternal bond: marriage. Besides the fact that these calves, “fight to suck at [their] mother’s teats” just the nature of this metaphor is obscene and unusual. To compare marriage to a two headed calf demotes it to a new level. This metaphor surely helps to ensure Minty’s stance on marriage, that not only is it unnatural, but that it also bring about much unnecessary fighting. Also, through metaphor, Minty claims that once someone is bonded with another in marriage, they lose a part of themselves. She achieves this through the metaphor of the onion in the first stanza, saying, “each half round, then flat and deformed/where it pressed and grew against the other.” Each onion is only half round, and is deformed where it meets the other. This, she claims, is like marriage. Once you are bonded to someone, you lose a part of yourself, and become, “flat and deformed.”
Donne too employs metaphors to establish his position of relationships. One metaphor he uses compares the needles of compasses to the speaker and his lover. He says that the lover is, “the fixed foot” and that the speaker only moves, “if th’ other do.” The speaker only goes where the partner goes, suggesting that they are one, as if it were as natural as breathing. In the second to last stanza he goes on to say, “Yet when the other far doth roam, /It leans and harkens after it.” He is saying that the speaker will do anything to be with his partner, and produces the image that he constantly seeks to be with her. This metaphor seems to be perfect, and is topped off by saying, Thy firmness draws my circle just, /And makes me end where I begun. In essence, he is saying that she can make him perfect, and that together, they can truly be a perfect couple.
Both Donne and Minty explore diction, metaphors, and imagery in their poems, each of which help to convey their views on relationships. Donne takes the positive, saying that love can be divine, while Minty claims marriage and relationships are abnormal and unnecessarily painful.