Read this excerpt from John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." "If they ar etwo, they are two so/As stiff, twin compasses are two,/Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show/to move, but doth, if th' other do." Which of these is the BEST interpretation of this passage?

Question

Read this excerpt from John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." "If they ar etwo, they are two so/As stiff, twin compasses are two,/Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show/to move, but doth, if th' other do." Which of these is the BEST interpretation of this passage?

A: Donne is using irony to trivialize his love for his wife
B: Donne is using a conceit to describe the love between him and his wife
C: Donne is using an understatement to dismiss the love his wife has for him
D: Donne is using sarcasm to describe the love between him and his wife

Answer 1

The best interpretation of this passage is B: Donne is using a conceit to describe the love between him and his wife. In this excerpt, Donne compares the love between him and his wife to the unity and precision of a pair of compasses.