'The Sun Rising' (1633) is a metaphysical love poem by John Donne. the poem 'The Sun Rising' is a complex love poem that explores the speaker's feelings towards the sun and his lover. Written in the 17th century, the poem is filled with rich imagery and metaphors that paint a vivid picture of the speaker's intense love and devotion, while rejecting the idea that anything can come between two people who are truly in love.
'The Sun Rising': John Donne
John Donne was born in London in 1572 to a Roman Catholic family at a time when the religion was outlawed. He died in 1631. Donne is considered a metaphysical poet who was also a talented orator, author, Anglican Dean, and sermon writer.
Metaphysical poetry is a type of poetry that originated in 17th-century England and is characterized by its use of intellectual and philosophical themes, unconventional syntax, and elaborate conceits (extended metaphors or comparisons) that often compare abstract concepts to concrete objects. The term was coined by Samuel Johnson in the 18th-century.
Other famous metaphysical poets include John Druden, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell.
He worked as a poet and cleric in his lifetime, and at the time of writing 'The Sun Rising,' he was in his mid-30s. He was known for his intellectual and religious pursuits, as well as his romantic poetry. It is not entirely clear what Donne was doing while writing 'The Sun Rising,' but it is likely that he was drawing on his own experiences of love and relationships to create the poem.
Donne is known to have a tumultuous love life. For example, the announcement of his secret marriage in 1601 to Anne More, the 17-year-old daughter of Egerton’s brother-in-law, ended his potentially productive diplomatic career. After he had been fired and sent to prison, he summarised his state of poverty and the reliance on charity from his friends as:
John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone.' 1
Perhaps due to his exciting love life, Donne is famous for his passionate and unconventional approach to love poetry. He often explored themes of love, sex, and relationships in his work, and 'The Sun Rising' is no exception. The poem showcases his mastery of metaphysical poetry, which was popular during the time, and the poem's imagery and language are highly intricate and rich.
Donne’s work became unfashionable during the Regency era, gaining traction again in the 1800s, when it inspired some of the more avant-garde poets of the era. The Modernist poet, T.S. Eliot, who repurposed his approach, drove the major revival of Donne’s work in the 1900s. Donne is now regarded as an important poet in the Western canon.
Fig. 1 - John Donne is considered a metaphysical poet.
'The Sun Rising': summary
'The Sun Rising' is considered to be one of Donne’s love poems. In this poem, Donne personifies the sun, treating it as a living, breathing being with whom he is in competition for his lover's attention. The speaker argues that the sun should not disturb his love and that their love is more important than any outside force.
| John Donne: The Sun Rising |
| Written In | 1633 |
| Written By | John Donne |
| Movement | Metaphysical Poem |
| Structure | Three stanzas of 10 lines each, also known as dizains. |
| Rhyme Scheme | ABBACDCDEE |
| Poetic Devices | Conceit |
| Relevant Poetic Terms | Aubade |
| Imagery | Sun, valuable spices and metals |
| Themes | Love as a microcosm, philosophical unitity |
Conceit: An extended metaphor or simile that develops a complex and often surprising comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things, often drawing out multiple points of comparison.
Aubade: An aubade is a type of poem that typically focuses on the theme of the morning and dawn. It is a genre of poetry that originated in medieval France, where it was often set to music and sung by troubadours.
'The Sun Rising': poem
Below is the poem 'The Sun Rising' in full. Note the rhyme scheme and count the metre as you go through it.
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.
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.
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.'
'The Sun Rising': analysis
There are and have been many readings of 'The Sun Rising'. Understanding the structure and poetic devices used is a good place to begin an analysis of this metaphysical poem.
'The Sun Rising': structure
'The Sun Rising' consists of three stanzas of ten lines each. The rhyme scheme is consistent across all three stanzas and follows an ABBACDCDEE pattern.
The meter used varies across lines within each stanza. Lines 1, 5, and 6 are iambic tetrameters while line 2 is a dimeter. Lines 3, 4 and 7 -1 0 are iambic pentameters.
Iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter are two common types of metrical patterns in poetry. An iamb is a metrical foot that consists of two syllables, with the first syllable unstressed and the second syllable stressed.
Iambic tetrameter is a metrical pattern consisting of four iambs in a line.
Iambic pentameter is a metrical pattern consisting of five iambs in a line.
This creates layers of varied rhythm that overlay the repeated structure of the stanzas and rhyme scheme. The variation contrasts with the predictability of the stanza structure, much like the seeming paradox of a conceit.
'The Sun Rising: poetic terms
The poem is a metaphysical anti-aubade. Donne wrote aubades, most famously 'Break of Day' (unknown). This poem is a straightforward aubade where the presumably illicit or very busy lovers need to separate at dawn.
In contrast, 'The Sun Rising' is about lovers who do not need to separate at dawn, which makes it an aubade.
The poem is also a clear example of the use of personification. The speaker personifies the sun as a human being with the ability to move and act with intention.
For example, in the opening lines of the poem, the speaker addresses the sun as if it were a person, saying,
Busy old fool, unruly sun, / Why dost thou thus, / Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
The speaker goes on to accuse the sun of disturbing his and his lover's sleep with its noisy and intrusive rays. Throughout the poem, the sun is portrayed as an active and willful force that seeks to exert its power over the world, and the lovers.
'The Sun Rising': the conceit
'The Sun Rising' is centred on the use of multi-layered conceits. In Stanza 1, Donne compares the sun to a person, referring to it as a 'Busy old fool' (line 1), an 'unruly sun' (line 1) and a 'Saucy pedantic wretch' (line 5). He goes on to advise the sun to 'go chide late school boys' (lines 5–6) and 'sour prentices' (line 6) instead of bothering the lovers.
In stanza 2, he reverses the conceit and compares himself and his powers to those of the sun. 'I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink'. (line 13). He could outshine the sun but he chooses not to, so that he can see his lover. The parallel conceit compares her to India's valuable spices and the West Indies' mined metals. Donne suggests that the valuables of the world are in fact in bed with him.
Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.' (lines 17–18)
By the last stanza, the pronouns 'she' and 'I' make their last appearance. The lovers become 'we'. Donne joins the two conceits of the sun and assets as well.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,' (lines 21–22)
The conceits that run throughout the poem are differentiated from the more straightforward metaphor. Firstly, the sun is personified in a conceit as a person who walks in on lovers, this conceit is then inverted to feature Donne as the sun. It is then adapted again to include the sun orbiting around both lovers as part of their constellation.
His lover, usually assumed to be Anne, is compared to valuable commodities and then part of a joint cosmic entity, also consisting of Donne and the sun.
Fig. 2 - The sun as a personified conceit in 'The Sun Rising'.
'The Sun Rising': meaning
Donne wrote this poem as an expression of love rather than an expression of dark humour and lust, which is a feature of some of his other poems like 'The Flea' (1633). By highlighting the lovers' ability to enjoy the sun, ignore time, and stay in bed, he separates them from the traditional lover and dawn sun themes of the abaude.
'The Sun Rising' is about the kind of love that causes hyperbolic comparisons and makes the lovers feel like the centre of the cosmos. Their bedroom acts as a microcosm, a small world enclosed in a larger universe. The sun acts as an intrusion of the larger world (the macrocosm) into their bedroom (the microcosm).
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere.' (line 29)
'The Sun Rising': themes
There are a few layers of themes in 'The Sun Rising' but a key one is, of course, love and lovers.
Donne describes the lovers as the centre of a cosmic universe of celestial bodies that include the human sun. He stressed that the riches of the external world are actually in bed with him. It was a trait of the Renaissance to connect the microcosm of the human body with the macrocosm of the universe, and Donne incorporates this into his poem.
Other themes include:
Time: Time is a fleeting and impermanent force that cannot be controlled or stopped. The speaker challenges the sun's authority over time, suggesting that their love is more powerful than the sun's rays.
Individualism: The speaker in the poem asserts his own importance and the importance of his lover in the face of the larger universe. He suggests that their small world together is more important than the larger universe, and that they are the centre of all that matters.
Power and Control: The poem explores the themes of power and control, and the tension between the desire for control and the recognition of the limits of human power. The speaker challenges the sun's authority over the world, suggesting that it is limited by their love.
Transience: The poem suggests that all things are temporary and fleeting, and that the only thing that truly matters is the present moment. The speaker suggests that their love can transcend time and space, and can create a small but powerful world of its own in their bedroom.
'The Sun Rising': imagery
The main imagery in 'The Sun Rising' is used in the many-layered conceits.
- The first conceit involves imagery of the sun, personified as a person who walks in on the two lovers.
- The second conceit has imagery of valuable commodities. Spices from India and mined metals from the West Indies are compared to Donne’s lover.
Donne also includes the cosmos as imagery in the final stanza when he describes the world of the two lovers in their bedroom.
The speaker uses the image of princes and states to suggest that he and his lover are the most important things in the world, which at the time of divine rule would be considered treasonous. He suggests that all of the world's power and wealth are insignificant compared to their love.
Finally, Donne's speaker uses the imagery of maps and globes to suggest that the world is a small and insignificant place and that their love is more powerful than the vastness of the universe. At the same time, the use of this imagery is significant because the early 17th century saw the beginnings of globalisation, the first pilgrims travelling to the New World (which is the modern-day United States), the development of colonialism, and the development of travel writing.
The Sun Rising - Key takeaways
- John Donne was born a Roman Catholic in London in 1572.
- He studied at Oxford, becoming the secretary to Lord Thomas Egerton, the lord keeper of England.
- His secret marriage to Anne ended his political career but was the source of inspiration for some of his poetry.
- Donne is considered a metaphysical poet who was also a talented orator, author, an Anglican Dean and a sermon writer.
- His poetry covers themes of religion, lust, love, and philosophy, making extensive use of the poetic device, conceit.
- T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats reinvigorated his approach by using his principles in their Modernist movement works.
References
- Robert H. Ray, A John Donne Companion (2014).
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