I really love this poem, the conceits John Donne uses are phenomenal. There’s already a blog going over the conceit between mintage and love, so I will cover the one between globes and the tears the lovers weep. This conceit begins in lines 10-13, and continues to linger around until the final stanza of the poem.

Donne first describes a workman (cartographer??? craftsman? I don’t know what we would call them in the present day) copying the continents of the earth onto a blank sphere, which in his words ,”quickly make that, which was nothing, all.” This is followed by the author proclaiming that the same principal applies to the tears his lover bears. What exactly Donne means by this is slightly unclear. Maybe he is saying that as a workman crafts the globe from nothing, the tears they bare make the relationship and its end much bigger than it actually is? (Scratch this, better interpretation incoming)

I think Donne, by using the conceit between crafting a globe and tears, is saying that the tears his lover bears are evidence that their relationship meant something special. Making that which was nothing, all.