Explanation:

“Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did and meant;

But trepidation of the spheres

Though greater far, is innocent.”

Answer: These lines have been taken from ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’, a famous love-lyric of John Donne. By means of a metaphysical conceit, the poet shows the celestial nature of love which has bound the two souls together, the soul of his beloved and that of himself.

Offering consolation to his wife for his short absence, caused by a foreign journey, the poet says that true lovers are not afraid of separation. Separation tests their loyalty and devotion to each other. Ordinary lovers who are addicted to physical enjoyment only may be able to stand separation. But their love is different from others. This love is based on the union of two souls and, therefore, it is celestial. Men are afraid of earthquakes and the damage caused by them. But the movement of the heavenly bodies, though much greater and more violent, is quiet and harmless. Similarly, ordinary lovers may lament a separation but the love between the poet and his beloved is so holy and pure that in spite of separation, they have no feeling of loneliness. Their love is so chaste, refined, and spiritual that physical absence does not matter to them at all.

The images in these lines are what Dr. Johnson meant “yoked violently together”. Earthquakes and the movement of the spheres are brought into the pictures of the lovers. The separation of ordinary lovers has been compared to earthquakes and that of the poet and his beloved to the ‘trepidation’ of the spheres. Thus, the framing of such a conceit is certainly a sign of intellect and so we find a beautiful blending of emotion and intellect.