Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Ordinary lovers rely on senses and break apart when separated.
- In plain terms
- Normal lovers need to be together to love.
- What can you take from it?
- Many relationships struggle with distance.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can love survive distance?
- Why do we need presence?
Another view
Some loves endure despite physical absence.
More from John Donne
Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines, and silver hooks.
Permalink to quote #29 Our two souls therefore which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat.
Permalink to quote #31 For I am every dead thing, In whom love wrought new alchemy. For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean empti…
Permalink to quote #28
Related quotes
No distance can keep anxious lovers long asunder.
George WashingtonGeorge Washington quote #17 Not often in life has a human being caused me such joy by his mere presence as you did.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr quote #26 She said, 'Love isn't enough. Your parents have to know how to relate to you, and to each other. They have to want to be with you more than with anyone else. T…
Dean R. KoontzDean R. Koontz quote #31