William Empson

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…credits to her is going succeed. Donne seems to have no dearth of sincerity in this poem. He is also purposeful in writing it; Donne himself was a man of great passion, and who had to go out to sea. "A Valediction: of Weeping" seems not to be the valediction of a jealous lover, but of a conscientious other making a concerted effort not to let jealousy and self-pity control his farewell to a lover.