John Donne - The Sun Rising - Analysis & Summary

About Author - 

John Donne was born in 1572 in London. He was an English poet, scholar, and soldier. He is considered the leading poet of metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by strong lines unlike song like smoothness, use of conceits, and full of witty and playful arguments.
The Love poems of Donne though titled Songs & Sonnets are not sonnets, but in many different lyrics forms, mostly invented by done himself.

The Theme of the Poem -

The Sun Rising, a piece of work from metaphysical poetry, features witty and playful arguments. Unlike the Petrarchan cliche of the woeful lover longing for the absent lady, the love poems and the central character of Donne had a self-sufficiency of lovers who make their own world. 



The Sun Rising - 

 Busy old fool, unruly sun,
               Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
               Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
               Late school boys and sour prentices,
         Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,
         Call country ants to harvest offices,
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.   
  
   Donne starts the poem by calling the sun a busy, old, and unruly fool. He asks him why he comes through windows and curtains. Why do lovers' seasons run according to him? He further calls the sun a saucy pedantic wretch and asks him to go and criticize school boys who are waking up late and unpleasant apprentices. The Sun should go and tell the court huntsmen that the king is now ready to ride, he should tell the country ants to start the harvest. In the last stanza, the poet asserts that Love is far more powerful and it is way above seasons, climate, hours, days, and months which are nothing but just rags of time. 


               Thy beams, so reverend and strong
               Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long;
               If her eyes have not blinded thine,
               Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,
         Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
         Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay.

   In the second stanza, the poet again asks the sun in a commanding voice why he thinks that his beams are reverend and strong. The poet in a silly and witty argument asserts that he could escape those strong beams just by closing his eyes. But he would not do so as even for that second, he can't lose sight of his lover. Further, he alludes to the eyes of her lover if those eyes don't blind your eyes then tomorrow, tell me if the spices of India and mines of West Indies are there only or are lying on the bed with me. The kings you saw yesterday and about whom you heard, all the riches and royalty of the world, lie here with me on this bed.
  The poet is referring to his lover lying beside him. 


               She's all states, and all princes, I,
               Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
               Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,
               In that the world's contracted thus.
         Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
         To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.


In the final stanza of the poem, the poet praises her lover and the power of love. He begins, His love is all the states and he is the prince of it. The princes, the wealth, and the honors you see are not real but they just copy and mimic us.

The poet says to the sun that he is just half as happy as the couple is. His age now asks for rest and retirement and his duty of warming the world now needs to come to an end. He should just shine here on the poet and his love and he will be everywhere. The poet asserts that the couple is the entire world. The bed is the center and these walls are the sphere. 

 

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