<Dd> Thy firmness makes my circle just </Dd> <Dd> And makes me end where I begun . </Dd> <P> The analogy here--of a compass in the process of drawing a circle--draws contrasts between the two lovers, where one is fixed and "in the centre sit (s)" while the other roams; despite this, the two remain inextricably connected and interdependent, staying inseparable despite the increasing distance between the two compass hands . Achsah Guibbory identifies a pun in "the fix'd foot...Thy firmness makes my circle just"; a circle with a dot in the middle is the alchemical symbol for gold, an element referred to in a previous stanza . </P> <P> Thematically, "A Valediction" is a love poem; Meg Lota Brown, a professor at the University of Arizona, notes that the entire poem (but particularly the compass analogy in the final three stanzas) "ascribe to love the capacity to admit changing circumstances without itself changing at the same time". Achsah Guibbory highlights "A Valediction" as an example of both the fear of death that "haunts" Donne's love poetry and his celebration of sex as something sacred; the opening draws an analogy between the lovers' parting and death, while, later on, the poem frames sex in religious overtones, noting that if the lovers were "to tell the layetie (of) our love" they would profane it . </P>

What does the poem a valediction forbidding mourning mean