The Novel and Ethical Reflection

Abstract

When Donne compares parted lovers to a pair of compasses he shows with singular clarity what separation in love is like. Love’s symmetry is conveyed by an idea transferred from science. We are led to think of the image as operating almost as a demonstration. And yet there is nothing miraculous in this, for the response it evokes is dependent on our having grasped the metaphor’s detailed logic. So, Donne’s concluding lines, Thy firmness draws my circle just, And makes me end, where I begunne’,¹ reveal the certitude of love, the absolute confidence in the other that transcends time and distance. Donne’s metaphor also tells us something of the limits of love. For the movements of the arms of the compass imply balance and proportion, a harmony of purpose which in the hands of love strongly suggest a power of endurance and likeness of perception that reach well beyond familiarity or the mere toleration of differences. Tf they be two, they are two so/As stiffe twin compasses are two.’.² Donne’s formulation asks us to believe that the hallmark of love is not just the presence of parallel feelings, but their mutual implanting. Where unison is absent, love is deficient, falsely imagined, or stillborn.