If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two, Thy soul the fixt foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if the other do.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Two lovers are compared to a compass: one stays fixed while the other moves, yet they remain connected.
- In plain terms
- Like a compass, even apart we stay connected.
- What can you take from it?
- Love stays connected even when apart.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What holds you together?
- How do you stay connected?
Another view
The metaphor assumes a stable center, which real relationships may not have.
More from John Donne
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 Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread Our eyes, upon one double string; So to entergraft our hands, as yet Was all the means to make us one, And pictures in ou…
Permalink to quote #33 Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it.
Permalink to quote #30
Related quotes
Separation isn't time or distance it's the bridge between us finer than silk thread sharper than swords
Nazim HikmetNazim Hikmet quote #9 'Are you anything akin to me, do you think, Jane?' I could risk no sort of answer by this time; my heart was full. 'Because,' he said, 'I sometimes have a quee…
Charlotte BronteCharlotte Bronte quote #26 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.
John DonneJohn Donne quote #31