Discuss the central message of "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."

I would argue that the overwhelming central message of
this excellent poem regards the love that the speaker has for his wife, and the way that
their years together have forged a kind of connection that is more spirtual than
physical. The way in which the poem presents their love as being a force that cannot be
separated, even by death itself, is incredibly moving, and forces us to think about the
nature of love and how it endures even in the face of darkness and death. One of the
most striking and beautiful images of this poem helps us to understand the special
nature of the love between the speaker and his wife, who possess a love that is "so much
refined":

If
they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are
two,

Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no
show

To move, but doth, if th'other
do.

By describing their souls
as being like the two feet of a compass, the speaker makes it clear of the kind of union
that characterises their relationship. Even when the two feet are apart and separate,
they are united, and this unity is shown in the way that, when the other foot "far doth
roam," the foot that remains in one place "leans, and hearkens after it / And grows
erect, as that comes home." The overwhelming message of this poem therefore concerns a
love that is so based in unity and trust that even death itself cannot separate the two
souls of the speaker and his wife.