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- Oct 2018
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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. And though it in the center sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.
One of John Donne conventions is using conceits, or extended metaphors in his writing. In this case he is comparing his and More's for love for each other to a compass. This is a very unique conceit and is very well known due to its uniqueness. Donne claims that Anne More is the foot on the compass that remains still and unchanging and he is the foot that moves (his travelling). He then goes on to say that while he moves away from More, as the feet on the compass do, he will always find his way back to her.
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