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About this quote

What does it mean?
Letters allow absent friends to connect their souls beyond mere kisses.
In plain terms
Writing lets friends share their souls when apart.
What can you take from it?
Letters can join people more deeply than a kiss.

Where it applies

  • long-distance friendship
  • missing someone
  • correspondence

Putting it to work

  • valuing writing
  • maintaining bonds

Questions to consider

  • Can letters truly share a soul?
  • What connects friends best?

Another view

It overstates what letters can do compared to presence.

More from John Donne

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  2. And new philosophy calls all in doubt, The element of fire is quite put out; The sun is lost, and the earth, and no man's wit, Can well direct him where to loo…

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  3. We understood Her by her sight; her pure, and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say, her body thought.

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