I Hope This Makes Sense

Preliminary Formal Analysis

1. Genre: This poem is lyric poetry.  This is a poem in which the author uses his words to express his emotions, in this case to a person he loves.  This is clear in many of the lines including in the second to last stanza when it says, “It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home.”

2. Narrator: The narrator of the story is someone that is parting with their lover.  It seems to be the author John Donne, but it could be anyone.  Having this option, that the narrator could be any person parting with their lover, makes the poem more applicable to other people.  

3. Setting: The setting is difficult to determine.  It is not clear what time or place the poem is meant to be.  It is clear that the poem is taking place at a time of life when a separation is happening.  The setting is wherever the lovers are together at the time.  

4. Plot: There doesn’t seem to be much of a plot to this poem.  It is mainly just thoughts expressed about the separation and how one should deal with and act at the time of the separation.  The actual act of the people separating is not described.  Just the emotions connected with it.  

5. Characters: This poem has two main characters.  The first is the narrator, and the second is his lover from whom he is being separated.  He also expresses another character when he says, “Our two soules therefore, which are one.” You could technically say that their collective soul is another character that does have a part in the poem.

6. Tone: Considering that this is a poem about the separation of two lovers, it doesn't seem to have a very sad or depressing tone.  It seems to have a tone of acceptance.  The narrator is not excited to see his lover go, but he has accepted that it is going to happen.  

7. Word Choice/Diction: The diction in this poem give it a soft or mellow feel.  It is evident in the very first stanza when it says, “As virtuous men passe mildly away, and whisper to their soules, to goe.”  The words “mildly” and “whispers” make it seem calms from the very start and this carries throughout the rest of the poem.  

8. Visual Design: The poem is broken up into four-line stanza with a total of 36 lines.  This seems to be the original layout of the poem.  This relates to the content in that it keeps the poem simple, easy to read, and calm, just like the content of the poem.  

9. Textual Awareness: The author seems to be strictly expressing his thoughts and feelings.  He doesn’t make it clear that the narrator knows he is writing a poem and doesn’t refer to literature in any way.  

10. Rhetoric: The audience in this poem is the lover to whom he is writing.  He uses the words “we” and “our” to make it clear that he is talking to someone in particular.  The situation that is taking place, the separation, effects how the author writes.  He is focused on one person.