Available via license: CC BY 4.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation
ISSN: 2617-0299 (Online); ISSN: 2708-0099 (Print)
DOI: 10.32996/ijllt
Journal Homepage: www.al-kindipublisher.com/index.php/ijllt
Page | 7
Usages for a Conceit: A Comparative Study of Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning" and Hāfez's Sonnet 193
Leila Hajjari1 Amaneh Zare2 and Hossein Aliakbari Harehdasht3
123Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Persian Gulf University, Iran
Corresponding Author: Leila Hajjari, E-mail: lhajjari@gmail.com
ARTICLE INFORMATION
ABSTRACT
Received: June 13, 2021
Accepted: July 19, 2021
Volume: 4
Issue: 7
DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.7.2
Hāfez and John Donne are both outstanding love poets. The multilayered implications
of the universal theme of love and its relation to the two poets' historical, cultural as well
as political contexts have encouraged the present comparative study of Donne's "A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and Hāfez's "Sonnet 193". The study is based on the
hypothesis that the most dominant features of Donne's love poems are the unity of sense
and sensibility as well as congruity of reason and passion, whereas in the poems of Hāfez
one can witness disjunction and incongruity between love and reason. In addition to
explaining the concept of love, both poets have wittily reflected upon the political
conflicts of their time, too. This research, therefore, aims at investigating how Hāfez and
Donne have used the mathematical tool, the compass, as a conceit, not only to concretize
their notion of love but also to express the symbolic significance of the circular
movement of that instrument to comment on the meaning of love in opposition to
reason and to criticize the political issues of their time.
KEYWORDS
Donne, Hāfez, conceit, compass,
Sonnet 193, A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning.
1. Introduction
1
Hāfez and Donne are both acknowledged to be spectacular love poets of their own time and culture. Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn
Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (1315-1390) known by his pen name, Hāfez, was the arch practitioner of the Persian sonnet form whose
collected poems (Dīwān) is considered to be the "pinnacle of Persian literature" ("Hafez"). His Dīwān is found at every Iranian home,
and people, common or elite, read his sonnets and sometimes at certain occasions look for knowledge of their future through a
holy ritualistic practice of opening the book abruptly for a prediction, known in Iran as Fāl-e-Hāfez. Hāfez gained international
attention a few centuries after his birth in Shiraz when the foremost English orientalist, William Jones, translated his works in the
late 18th century. This fame spread throughout Europe to the extent that "the name Hāfiz [became] synonymous with Persian
poetry in the literary culture of Europe" (Khan, 2009, p. 43). John Donne, likewise, was the pre-eminent representative of
metaphysical poetry, born in 1572 in London; he composed poems filled with "mysteries, paradox, and intricate imageries" which
made his poems intriguing and challenging at the same time. "He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits"
("John Donne").
Hāfez's Dīwān is replete with different drawings on and implementation of the theme of love to the extent that in 313 beits (two
rhymed lines) of his book, Hāfez directly mentions "love (ععع Eshgh)," "lover (ععععAshegh)," and the "beloved (ععععع
Ma'shoogh)". Similarly, the centrality and omnipresence of the theme of love in Donne's poetry place him among the great love
poets of the English early modern poetry. As Naugle (n.d.) puts it,
For the enormously "complex and vexed," (Holy Sonnet 18) John Donne (1572-1631), the one in whom 'all contraries
meet', life was love-the love of women in his early life, then the love of his wife (Ann More), and finally the love of
God. (1)
Published by Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development, London, United
Kingdom. Copyright (c) the author(s). This open access article is distributed
under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license
Usages for a Conceit: A Comparative Study of Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and Hāfez's Sonnet 193
Page | 8
It is interesting to note that Baha-ud-Din Khoramshahi (2013), one of the eminent Hāfez scholars, has pointed to a nearly similar
three forms of love in Hāfez's poems; the term, love ( Eshgh) which is repeated more than 250 times, can be categorized into
three types in the Dīwān: human love, aesthetic love (love of poetry/art), and divine love.
To portray love, both poets have used different images and literary devices, among which one stands out to be quite similar, the
compass. The similar use of this conceit, which is by definition a far-fetched metaphor, by John Donne has encouraged the authors
of this study to investigate the real implications of this usage. Therefore, they have tried to answer the following question: what
does the compass as a conceit serve in the poems of the two poets and why? To answer this question, two major objectives,
personal and political, of the two poems under the study have been compared. Although the study is based on the comparison,
the comparison serves for achieving a greater purpose: finding common grounds between two kinds of literature and nations that
are alien to each other. By illuminating the similarity of the two poets' perspective or their differences, a new insight is gained by
the readers of both poems, and a cultural familiarity is created between the two English and Persian literature which is the main
objective of Comparative Literature study.
2. Literature Review
The multilayered nature of Hāfez and Donne's poetry has led to countless separate discussions of each poet. Guibbory (2015)
wrote about how politics, love, and religion are interconnected in Donne's writing (p. 811). Izadyar (2015) considered Hāfez as a
sociologist and an anthropologist rather than a love poet since he mirrors the circumstances of his time in his poetry. Modarres
Zadeh and Anushirvani (2016) examined the theme of love in Rumi and Donne's poetry. In his article, he provided the readers with
the general illustration of the unique perception of the concept of love in the poetry of Rumi who was the most distinguished
Persian Sufi mystic poet, and in the poetry of John Donne, the leading English poet of the metaphysical school. Another
comparative study on the subject of love had been undertaken by Sajjadi (2013) who delineated the influence of Hāfez on Goathe.
In his article, one can witness the extent that love removes distance and keeps nations and cultures closer. Hadadi and Mousazade
(2011) based their study on the hypothesis that the most dominant feature of Hāfez's poetry is the demonstration of the
incongruity and disjunction between love and reason. Dezh Abad (2013) demonstrated various types of beloveds in Hāfez's poetry.
These beloveds were the demonstration of the physical, mystic, and spiritual aspects of Hāfez's love poems. Mousely (1999), after
analyzing Donne's Elegies demonstrated his hatred towards Queen Elizabeth as a female monarch as well as the description of this
hatred in Donne's private amatory relations which were illustrated in his Elegies. Fathollahi and Hosseini (2014) in their article, "The
Political Philosophy of Khawaja Shams al-Din Mohammad Hāfez Shirazi," referred to the fact that Hāfez was called Khwaja (master)
since he was the chronicler of the political condition of his own time. They believed that investigating the worldview of Hāfez could
provide the researchers with the latent aspects of his political philosophy (pp. 1-2). Mansournejad's (2014) article, "Mahiyate
andishe siasi rende Shiraz Hāfez," explores the political terminologies existing in Hāfez's Divan to examine whether these
terminologies have the same usage in the world of politics or not. He ultimately concludes that most of these terms reveal Hāfez's
political thought. He pinpoints some of the political terminologies which are prevalent in Hāfez's Divan such as government (
Dolat, Hokumat), power ( Ghodrat, Eghtedar), Sovereignty ( Saltanat, Hakemiyyat), and legitimacy
( Mashruiyyat) (pp. 73-74). Mansournejad concludes that the existence of these terminologies may rise to three
hypotheses:
1) Hāfez tries to praise people who were in charge of power to save both his life and his status. 2) Hāfez utilizes
admiration of the rulers to allude to his political idea which is usually critical of the rulers of his time. 3) There is a
corresponding relationship between Hāfez's mystical imagination and his political ideas. (p. 87)
3. Methodology
This research corresponds with the principles of the Comparative Literature study. This method of studying literature aims to find
common grounds of analysis between literature that are alien to one another. The reason behind the search for those grounds
(which are not only comprised of similarities but also of differences) is to familiarize and hence lessen the effects of being estranged
from one another; Comparative Literature pursues a democratic goal and desires to reduce misunderstandings, and in extreme
cases atrocities, that often arise from lack of familiarity and knowledge between and among the nations that are geographically,
linguistically, and culturally aloof from each other. This study, therefore, concentrates on the theme of love which is a universal
theme under the rubric of Comparative Literature to show how two poets who are both spatially and temporally at a distance have
thought and felt the same. As Anushiravani (2010) states, "similar issues can be found in the world literature. These similarities are
indicators of the universal nature of literature rather than the sign of influence" (p. 44). Eventually, Humans speak different
languages, but they feel the same when it comes to the matter of heart and mind.
IJLLT 4(7): 7-14
Page | 9
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Love
Poets usually use rhetorical devices to turn Love, which is an essentially complicated and/or abstract concept, into a concrete one,
hence tangible, for certain needs and goals. Although there are plenty of ways to concretize love using the literary devices, one of
the most interesting ones deployed by the 14th-century Persian poet, Hāfez, the supreme connoisseur of the Persian sonnet form,
and the 16th-17th-century English metaphysical poet, John Donne, is conceit, or the far-fetched metaphor. Hāfez uses compass as
a conceit to be able to convey his mystical as well as political ideologies of and about love; Donne uses it to elaborate on his
metaphysical notion of body versus soul in light of the idea of love. Both poets, as we are going to show, are poets of love who
are concerned with its conflicting aspects, the spiritual and the political, the sacred and the mundane, the emotional and the
rational, the personal and the socio-political. To delineate this duality, they found a compass as the best means.
In Hāfez's poems, to begin with, one can witness the permanent existence of the idea of incongruity and disjunction between love
and reason and/or the lyrical/personal/passional and the rational/social/political, the former in this binary relation taking the
dominant position. Hadidi (2011) asserts that in many cases, Hāfez gives priority to love's spiritual power and criticizes the worldly
intellect or reason on account of its limitation to comprehend the true essence of love (p. 59). Hāfez, in Sonnet 193, for instance,
utilizes the compass to juxtapose and oppose love and reason. In the beit (a combination of two lines of poetry) "The wise are the
center of the compass of existence / But love knoweth that, in this circle, they head-revolving are" (
[Äghelan noghteye pargäre vojoodand vali / Eshgh dänad ke dar in däyereh sargardänand])
(Clarke, 2001, pp. 3-4), the relationship of the two concepts, that is, love and reason, is evident. However, different interpretations
of this line help us have a better perception of the incongruity between love and reason. Iränfar (2007) emphasizes the concept of
love and asserts that the wise are the center of the compass of existence, but only love apprehends that the wise are not in the
center; in fact, they are only roaming in the sphere of the circle; thus, paradoxically love itself is in the center (p. 63). The fact that
Hāfez mentions the singular word of "love" and the plural "the wise" can be a confirmation of the reliability of Iranfar's
interpretation since the center of the circle can only be the position of one entity. Therefore, the word circle refers to the circle of
love and the wise are wandering about on and around the sphere of this circle.
The word "head-revolving" expresses a pun which can refer both to the act of wandering and to the way the wise as the moving
leg of the compass revolves around the firm leg, which is love, at the center; they are unable to reach the center of the circle. By
stating that "love knoweth" Hāfez intends to express that the interrelation between love and reason is irrevocable; it is Love that
knows, not the wise, hence love's meaning transcends the mundane or secular meaning; it is allegorized to mean the Beloved, the
mystical Form, the Ideal and the Idea. This Love has knowledge by which it can conceive the nullity of worldly intellect.
It is worth mentioning here that the word circle which is an effect of or an image drawn by the compass has various functions. As
Bagheri Khalili and Mehrabi Kali (2014) put it, as opposed to Saadi who utilizes the word circle in his poems to refer to both a
complete circle and a spiral, Hāfez always refers to a complete circle when he mentions the word in his poems. He continues to
say that circle in Hāfez's poetry can be an indication of three main concepts. The first concept is demand (talab). This demand can
be for love, beloved, and wine. The second concept is the complaint (shekvah). The third concept is submission (taslim) through
which Hāfez intends to indicate the complete finite circle to emphasize both the function of time and fortune (p. 132).
Another interpretation of Hāfez's famous beit of the putative sonnet which puts more emphasis on the function of the compass
and its circular effect, the image drawn using this mathematical tool is by Ebrahim Dinani (2012). He expresses that, concerning
what we learn from Hāfez's sonnet, only a skeptic person would not consider existence as a complete circle. He explains that when
Hāfez considers the wise as the center of the compass of existence, it is a kind of allusion to the wisely created existence as in
another sonnet, sonnet 77, the compass is the vehicle of creation in the hands of the Creator: "Rise to give our souls for the
Painter's reed-pen / Who in the movement of his compass [emphasis added] has many wonderful shapes". This existence has a
specific beginning and a specific end. Hāfez surpasses the demonstration of reason and loving relationship and considers Love
which has knowledge as a booster of intellect to emphasize existence as a complete circle metaphorically shown as an effect of
the compass, the Creator's shaping/drawing tool.
John Donne, likewise, depicts love's requirements in "A Valediction" by utilizing the compass as a far-fetched metaphor or a conceit.
By considering the two feet of the compass as the lover and beloved's souls, John Donne demonstrates the dependency of the
lover and beloved on each other as well as the persistence in love. The illustration of this dependency in love culminates in the act
of leaning one foot of the compass toward the other one. "And though in the center sit/ yet, when the other far doth roam/ it
leans and hearkens after it" (ll. 29-31). This tendency and interdependency of the two legs of the compass can illustrate the final
consequence of love which is submission. In this regard, Hāfez, too, glorifies a type of love that is omnipresent with perpetual
knowledge or learned supremacy of the steadfast love over the roaming intellect, or the celestial soul over the mundane body. He
Usages for a Conceit: A Comparative Study of Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and Hāfez's Sonnet 193
Page | 10
depicts taslim (submission) to the knowledge induced by love emphasizing that only Love knows that the wise are head-revolving
in the circle of existence like the moving foot of the compass around the fixed leg, that is the center.
As in many of his love poems, John Donne in "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," engenders a dichotomy between the common
love of the everyday experience and the uncommon love of the speaker that emphasizes the sacred nature of love. "Donne's love
poetry plays on and stands in contrast to Neoplatonic and Petrarchan dualism where it was believed that the soul wanted nothing
to do with the body" (Rivers, 1994, p. 34). However, the contradictory point of Donne's love poems is his expression of a position
where the lovers possess the body and transcend it at the same time. According to this contradiction, the degree of priority that
Donne gives to the physical and the spiritual love varies in different poems. Another intriguing feature of Donne's love poetry is
his illustration of a paradox of how the lovers can be both two and one at the same time. "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
revolves around this mysterious union that makes two become one, and also it demonstrates how the power of love, which
depends on merging identities of two lovers in one soul, can cancel out the separateness of the individual lovers.
In "A Valediction," John Donne expresses his love for his wife, Ann More. He compares his beloved's soul to the fixed foot of the
compass, and his soul to the roaming foot of the compass. He admits that he and his beloved may have two souls rather than one;
however, he develops the connectedness of their two souls by comparing their souls to the twin feet of the compass that connect
with each other by the same point. The utilization of the compass can be an allusion to the ancient love theory as held by Plato
and Ficino. We learned from both that "man was originally one, containing both male and female, but later separated. As a result,
lovers seek to reunite the two halves and become whole again and this pursuit where they melt into one another is called love"
(Cirilo, 2016, p. 87). By using the word soul, Donne intends to give priority to the spiritual nature of love rather than a physical one.
The word soul refers to “an entity distinct from the body; the essential, immaterial, or spiritual part of a person or animal, as
opposed to the physical” (OED). Thus, the only way to become whole or one again is through love which is spiritual and transcends
the realm of the physical body. As a result, the compass is the perfect illustration to encapsulate the values of Donne's spiritual
love, which is symmetrical, balanced, intellectual, and glorious in its polished simplicity. As Donne demonstrates it in the poem,
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do (ll. 25-28).
The twin feet of the compass may take distance from or draw closer to one another in different diametrical lengths of the circles;
however, this distancing is conditioned by time. Identical to the twin feet of the compass, separation may happen to the lovers,
but it cannot affect the purity of the lovers' amatory relation since their relationship is based on consistency which is established
by the beloved's soul. According to Greteman (2010), the poem argues that the soul is superior to and not dependent on the
physical, and claims that love can continue despite physical separation (p. 32). Thus, spiritual love between the lovers admits
absence even though this separation is not a permanent one. Targoff (2008) argues that the poem conveys “a love that needs no
substantial embodiment, a love that can survive on a purely spiritual plane” (p. 71). In this part of the poem, John Donne correlates
the function of the compass and the relationships between the lovers.
Such wilt thou to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I began (ll. 29-32).
The circular movement of the compass stands for Donne's notion of love and life at the same time. Donne's notion of life, in
Freccero (2015) words, "is a Circle, made with a Compass, that passes from point to point; that life is a Circle stamped with a print,
endless, and Perfect Circle, as soon as it begins" (p. 339). John Donne utilizes the circular imagery for both worldly lives that
implicates earthly experience and the life to come that implies eternity. Donne emphasizes that the earthly and human experience
IJLLT 4(7): 7-14
Page | 11
is like a finite circle; it starts from a specific point and ends in a specific point; thus, it can be measured by time and space. Donne
signifies eternity by an infinite circle. "No finite circle can express the all-encompassing dimensions of eternity, nor can any localized
center give a hint of its omnipresence" (Freccero, 2015, p. 340). Hence, when Donne expresses his notion of eternity, he illustrates
an endless circle which is more like a spiral rather than a complete circle since it is an endless circle. According to Frecerro (2015),
human love "pulsates between the eternal perfection of circularity and the linear extension of space and time" (p. 336). Thus, the
compass describes the expansion of the lovers' spirit, and the lover's return to his beloved perfects the circle making it complete.
The common point of the compass acts as the point of eternity in which the lovers share one common soul. The soul of the lover
and the beloved together construct the soul of love and the center of the circle is their common position. By glorifying spiritual
love, Donne attempts to manifest the eternal essence of love so the word circle in this stanza refers to a spiral rather than a
complete circle.
The notion of love which is indicated by these two poets defines the praiseworthiness of love to be celebrated as a concept that
transcends the material world, either the physical body or the terrestrial intellect. It is an outstanding human quality. It is, in general,
associated with some requirements such as the competency of the lover, persistence in love, and the favor of the beloved. If one
meets all these requirements, it will lead to the ultimate phase or status which, as in the case of Hāfez's lover, is acceptance and
submission (Karimi, 2015, pp. 143-145). Therefore, both poets place love at the center of the circle which is mentioned in their
poems. Despite describing various types of love, both Hāfez and Donne delineate the power of love as well as its ultimate effect
or achievement, that is, submission to the will of the beloved while holding steadfastly onto the center. The difference lies probably
in the fact that for both poets the beloved takes different quality; to Hāfez, the beloved is hardly imaginable in the sphere or realm
of matter whereas to Donne, it can hardly trespass the bounds of earthly presence.
4.2. Politics
One of the substantial potentialities of Hāfez and Donne is that they can not only expound on and dramatize love and passion,
hence creating an emotional/romantic atmosphere in their poems, but also reflect the socio-political circumstances of their own
time using or under the guise of this universal theme. Therefore, it is not difficult to notice the political under/overtones of their
love poems. In Hāfez, very often love serves as a means to satirize the religious fanatics who are actually in power in society. He
does it sometimes using wit and sometimes quite openly. Donne, nonetheless, has a rather more oblique way of criticizing those
who are in power. Interestingly, the two poets deploy the putative compass as a conceit to remain immune to the threats of the
powerful addressees of their poems.
Hāfez was subject to sovereign rulers witnessing the reign of different monarchs in his lifetime. Therefore, knowing about the
socio-political conditions of his time can help excavate other hidden meanings of his poems. Ashouri (2016) believes that to have
the hermeneutic perception of Hāfez's poems one must consider the poem's correlation to its historical background and should
accept the historical caliber of his ideas (tarikhiate andishe) as the basis of his poetry (p. 20). According to Izadyar (2015), Hāfez is
a sociologist and an anthropologist rather than a poet. He is the chronicler of the political and social conditions of his own time.
He attempts to mirror the circumstances of his time in his poetry. Poetry is how he struggles against the ruthlessness of life (p. 22).
Mansournejad (2014) argues that Hāfez depicts many conventional political factors in his Diwan (p. 76). These factors are the
priority of the ruler over ordinary people, lack of general expedient people, and ruler relationship which is identical to the
relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. "Many of Hāfez's poems that have a critical tone were written during the reign
of Mobarezal-Din" (Izadyar, 2015, p. 22). In many of his sonnets (ghazals) in his Diwan, Hāfez attacks this hypocritical and
oppressive Islamic dictator.
Mobarez-al-Din, whose bloody and murderous nature was notorious, pretended to respect the Islamic rules. Thus, he commanded
all the taverns to be closed. "He went to such excesses in prosecuting 'vice' and commanding people to pursue 'virtue', that the
wits and the comics of the metropolis soon mocked him with the sobriquet 'the policeman' [muhtasib]" (Lewishan, 2010, p. 23).
Lewishan (2010) explains that this kind of religious dictatorship made Hāfez elaborate his well-known symbol, the inspired libertine
(rind), as a representative of the spiritual and intellectual counter-culture of the city. This line of Sonnet 193, "Poor are we; and
desire for wine and the minstrel, we have: Also! If, in pledge, the woolen khirka they take not"([Moflesanimo havaye meyo motreb
darim/Ah agar khergheye pashmin be gero nastanand]) (Clarke, 2001, pp. 9-10), indicates Hāfez's complaint to the deed of this
pretentious Islamic dictator, especially his commandment of the closure of the taverns.
The compass metaphor in the afore-mentioned sonnet has its political edge as well and has been beautifully utilized by Hāfez to
criticize the dizziness of those who assume to be wise who know better what benefits people and what harms them, the very
common notion of "thou shalts and thou shalt nots" of every religious discourse and doctrine. The lines (beit) in Sonnet 193, "The
wise are the center of the compass of existence / But love knoweth that, in this circle, they head-revolving are" ([Äghelan noghteye
pargäre vojoodand vali / Eshgh dänad ke dar in däyereh sargardänand]) (ll. 3-4), gives evidence to the fact that Hāfez contrasts
Usages for a Conceit: A Comparative Study of Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and Hāfez's Sonnet 193
Page | 12
those who see by the constant love and those who judge by the wandering/bewildered reason, especially by the ideological or
religious reason. However, ironic, it attests to Hāfez's mystical approach to life. For Hāfez like all other great Persian mystics such
as Farid al-Din Attar, Rumi, and Sa'di, love is the wing the exalts the soul and lets the mind soar in realms that are alien to the
mathematical minds. Hāfez's witty and playful usage of the compass is ironic and shows his cleverness to turn the means of
(mathematical) reasoning against it. Estelami (2014) has pointed out that the wise are those who concern themselves too much
with the profits or harms of life and existence whether here or the world to come (p. 501); therefore, these intellectuals who
consider themselves as to be wise are unable to comprehend the real essence of life which in Hāfez's opinion is love and living by
its law.
In Hāfez's sonnet 193, the fixed foot of the compass is assigned to the wise, just to deconstruct this notion immediately on the
following line of the poem. Why does he utilize the plural noun, Äghelan (the wise)? On the one hand, Hāfez utilizes Äghelan
elegantly to allude to the inconsistency and temporality of the status that people in charge of power, i.e., pretentious rationalists
like Mobarez-al-Din, possess. On the other hand, he extends his criticism to all the hypocrites. Hāfez attempts to say that people
like Mobarez-al-Din assume themselves to be the sole and eternal ruler of the people, comparing themselves to the fixed foot of
the compass. But if it were a safe and permanent position, there would be no need for several Äghelan (wise people); only one
would be sufficient. In addition, there is a pun in the word "head-revolving" that signifies both the unsteadiness of the fixed foot
of the compass, assigned to the bewildered wise who are not able to conceive the definition of love and the malevolence of
Mobarez al-Din. He decapitated lots of culprits while he was reciting the Quran without pausing his recitation, "'I've heard rumors
that you've executed 1000 people by your hand', Shah Shuja asked his father [Mobarez ah-Din].' on the contrary, it was only 800
in maximum,' came the reassuring riposte" (Lewishon, 2010, p. 24).
John Donne, likewise, wrote most of his Elegies during the 1590s when England was ruled by Elizabeth I, a self-centered woman,
the ruler of the patriarchal society in which women were subordinate to men. Her sovereignty was a great encouragement for the
oppressed women but for men, there were tensions inherent in the submission to the authority of a female ruler, "Tensions over
submission to the female rule are strikingly evident in Donne's representation of private love relationships in his Elegies"
(Mousely,1999, p. 28). In most of his Elegies, Donne rejects the female dominance in his private amatory relation which can lead
to his rejection of female rule in the public world. Donne expresses his dissatisfaction with female authority by mocking the
convention of Petrarchan love sonnets which are written in imitation of Petrarch and characterized by “their platonic love for an
impossibly idealized and ethereal mistress” (Siegel 2015, 164). As Guibbory states in his article, Donne attempts to express his self-
aggrandizement not only in amatory relation but also in politics in his Elegies (as cited in Mousely, 1999, p. 33).
Although Donne wrote "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" in 1611, after Elizabeth's death, and even though this poem is from
his Song and Sonnets collection, not his Elegies, still one can follow the traces of his obsession with the female rule in his poem.
Donne reveals his rejection of Petrarchan love sonnets which were prevalent in the Elizabethan age by composing this poem as an
expression of his love for his wife, who is not an unattainable woman; however, still, he considers a woman as a center of power
"And though in the center sit"(l. 29). To achieve the balance between his love and his desire for mastery, Donne expresses his
admiration of the fixed foot of the compass on the one side, while, on the other side, he alludes to his desire for mastery in this
relationship. Donne just uses a personal and romantic style to appreciate his love of life, the one who is the sovereign fixed foot,
the ruler of their love relation; he considers himself to be only the roaming foot of the compass, hence her inferiority, her
subservience, and dependence. He glorifies her consistency in love. However, obliquely and with social and political undertones,
he alludes to the female monarch, Elizabeth I, as the fixed foot of the compass, himself and her subjects being its roaming foot.
Thus, he extends the metaphor from the personal to the public level. The consistency in love also entails men's lack of original
liberty that made them subservient to the authority of the queen. By referring to a woman as a center of power or the fixed foot
of the compass, a sense of superiority is established. As soon as this sense of superiority is established, Donne announces a final
twist by using the word lean. "Yet, when the other far doth roam, / It leans and hearkens after it"(ll. 30-31). The rooted foot of the
compass is tending to lean toward the other foot and then it grows erect by the assistance of the roaming foot of the compass."
And grows erect, as that comes home" (l. 32). Now his tension over the submission to the female rule demonstrates itself by
indicating the dependency of the fixed foot of the compass which is assigned to a self-centered female monarch to the other foot
of the compass which is assigned to men as well as other members of society. Therefore, the structure of the sovereignty of the
self-centered female monarch is deconstructed by the poetic persona's uncovering her dependence on all her subjects. This is
reminiscent of the speech made by Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet (1599-1602) that best testifies to the heritage that forms
Donne's point of view regarding a monarch's position in society,
His greatness weighed, his will is not his own,
IJLLT 4(7): 7-14
Page | 13
For he himself is subject to his birth.
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
The sanctity and health of this whole state,
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head. (I. iii. 17-25)
The quote reveals that the monarchs are not independent beings coming from another planet. They are as much human as other
people are, and eventually, they have their types of limitations and dependence.
The historical backgrounds of Hāfez and Donne have, as shown above, been the impetus behind this study to examine the function
of the compass in the political context, too. Both Hāfez and Donne utilize the compass metaphor to indicate their dissatisfaction
with the rulers of their own time. This dissatisfaction can only be in the form of the internal conflict as evident in Donne's poetry
which has a less social manifestation. Despite Donne's resentment, one cannot ignore the significant role of Elizabeth I in the
improvement of England in political, social, literary and various other aspects whereas Hāfez's dissatisfaction has more intense
social illustration since he criticizes the reign of a dictator, Mobarez-al-Din, and, by referring to the word, Äghelan, he extends his
criticism to prove the deficiencies of those pretentious rationalists who are in charge of power and behave in the same manner as
Mobarez-al-Din does.
5. Conclusion
The multilayered implications of the universal theme of love have informed the present study as a comparative analysis of Donne's
"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and Hāfez's Sonnet193. The point of this comparison is the common utilization of the
compass as a conceit by both Hāfez and Donne in the above-mentioned poems. Based on the Comparative Literature principles,
the study aims to make a connection between two tempro-spatially aloof poets, one from 14th-century Iran and one from 16th-
century England, to create a familiarity for the readers who come from two distinctly different languages and cultures. That is to
say, the existence of analogous terminologies such as love, circle, and compass in these poems enabled the researchers of this
study to compare the function of these terminologies in the poems of the two poets who came from separate social, political, and
literary backgrounds. The results of comparing Hāfez's utilization of the conceit in the sonnet 193 with that of Donne's in "A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," show that both Donne and Hāfez have used the same mathematical tool, the compass, not
only to comment on the meaning of love but also to criticize the political atmosphere of their time. In other words, love for both
poets is just a disguise and the main premise and design of the two poems is the political censure. Love is a foil to politics, a
contrast that is made by the two poets to show how the world has fallen apart because of a big displacement or a huge faulty
replacement of love by politics. Because no previous research had concentrated on the comparative study of the two poets, we
hope that this study will pave the way for further study of their poetic achievements.
References
[1] Anushiravani, Alireza (2010). Asibshenasi Adabiate Tatbighi dar Iran. Vizhenameh Adabiat Tatbighi Farhangestan 1(2), 32-55.
[2] Ashoori, Dariyoush (2016). Erfano Rendi dar Sheere Hāfez. 13th ed. Tehran: Tajik.
[3] Bagheri Khalili, Aliakbar, & Mehrabi Kali, M. (2014). Tarhvare charkheshi dar she're Hāfez va Saadi. Naghde Adabi 6(23), 125-148.
[4] Baha-ud-Din Khoramshahi (2013). Different Types of Love in the Poetry of Lesaan al-Gheib [Anvae Eshgh dar Ashaare Lesaan al-Gheib].
http://www.dana.ir/news/16929.html
[5] Cirillo A. R. (2016). The Fair Hermaphrodite: Love-Union in the Poetry of Donne and Spenser. SEL: Studies in English Literature1500-1900
9(1), 81-95.
[6] Clarke, Henry Wiberforce, trans. (2001). Ghazal of Hāfez Shirazi: In Persian with English translation. Comp. Homayoun Far, Behrouz.
[7] Dezh Abad, Vali (2013). Anvae maashough dar sheere Hāfez. http://guilan-e-ma.ir
[8] Ebrahimi Dinaie, & Hossein, G. (2012). Aghelan noghte pargare vojoudand. https://www.philosophyar.net
[9] Estelami, M. (2014). Darse Hāfez: Naghdo sharhe Ghazalhaye Hāfez. Tehran: Sokhan.
[10] Fathollahi, Mohammad Ali, & Hosseini, Masoome (2014). The Political Philosophy of Khawaja Shams al-Din Mohammad Hāfez Shirazi.
Pazhouheshhaye Siasate Eslami 1(3),113-142.
[11] Freccero, John (2015). Donne's Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. ELH, 30(4), 335-376.
Usages for a Conceit: A Comparative Study of Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and Hāfez's Sonnet 193
Page | 14
[12] Greteman, Blaine (2010). All this seed pearl: John Donne and Bodily Presence. College Literature, 37(3), 26-42.
[13] Guibbory, Achsah (2015). Oh, Let Mee Not Serve So: The Politics of Love in Donne's Elegies. ELH, 57(4), 811-833.
[14] Hadidi, Khalil, & Mousazade, M. A. (2011). Jelvehaye kheradsetizi dar sheere Hāfez. Noormagz 36(223), 53-88.
[15]Hafez. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:17, June 24, 2021, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hafez&oldid=1027469833
[16] Iranfar, Mohammad (2007). Pargar, Noghte, Dayere dar sheere Hafez. Noormagz 11(35), 63-65.
[17] Izadyar, Mohsen (2015). Barresi azad andishi dar sheere Hāfez. Faslname Elmi Tarviji Zaban Farsi 4(15),16-36.
[18]John Donne. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:41, June 21, 2021, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Donne&oldid=1029039991
[19] Karimi, Najmeh (2015). Tabalvore Jameiyate Farhangi va Andishehaaye Hāfez dar sheere ou. Erfaniyat dar Adab Farsi 1(27),132-152.
[20] Khan, Gulfishan. 2009. Muslim-Western Cultural Encounter in the Eighteenth Century: The Impact of Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī'sPoetry on Europe. Islamic
Studies, 48(1), 35-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20839153
[21] Lewishan, L (2010). Hāfez and tradition of love in classical Persian poetry. New York.
[22] Mansournejad, M. (2014). Mahiyate andishe siasi rende Shiraz, Hāfez. Oloum Siasi 16(61), 69-90.
[23] Modarres Zadeh, & Reza, M. & Anushirvani, A. (2016). Parallels of love in Rumi and Donne. International Journal of Comparative Literature
and Translation Studies 4(4), 24-31.
[24] Mousely, A (1999). John Donne: Contemporary Critical Essays. London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD.
[25] Naugle, David (2018). John Donne's poetic philosophy of love. http://fliphtml5.com/qjfd/ufyx
Oxford English Dictionary Online. http://en.oxforddictionaries.com
[26] Rivers, Isabel (1994). Classical and Christian Ideas in English Renaissance Poetry. Routledge.
[27] Sajjadi, Seyyed Mahdi, & Mahdavi, Zeinab (2013). The Comparative Study: Aesthetic and Love in Hāfez and Goethe's poetry in order to
awaken and bring perfection in Global Education. ERIC 8(23), 2233-2240.
28] Siegel, Paul N. (2015). The Petrarchan Sonneteers and Neo-Platonic Love. Studies in Philology 42(2), 164-182.
[29] Shakespeare, William (n. d.). The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. Folger Shakespeare Library. http:// www.folgerdigitaltexts.org
[30] Targoff, Ramie (2008). John Donne, Body and Soul. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London.
