The Good Morrow
Content:
Celebration of joyfully waking up with a lover – their souls have woken up together – explores
a new life together, one that is created by central, mutual spiritual love – aubade – love is a
spiritual bond
Aim:
Contemplates the special quality of their love, aiming to show the elevated experience of
being in love.
Tone:
Reflective, conversational, informal, disbelieving, bewondered
Striking moments of sound and rhythm:
- ‘Let’ – repetition of the passive imperative – dismissive of the world outside the
relationship/its irrelevance
Context:
a) ‘Seven sleepers’ den’ – Catholic legend – the lovers weren’t really awake/present in
life before they found each other – woken up to a new Christian experience – love
described with religiosity – spiritual divinity of the love
b) Final conceit – densely argued point that they will continue loving each other
eternally/their love will give them immortality – ‘What ever dies was not mixed
equally’ – idea of equal elements within us, playing on Aristotle’s idea of heavenly
bodies and sublunary bodies, which were not mixed equally so cannot achieve stability
– ‘none do slacken, none can die.’ – the lovers together become a perfect mix of
elements – they achieve perfect stability – love becomes immutable/love will give them
immortality
Evocative imagery:
- Love ‘makes one little room an everywhere.’ – their love contains everything in it;
a safe microcosm in the turbulent macrocosm of the outside world – sense of control in
their love, which is not constricting, but defining – end stop gives sense of finality –
assured conclusion of the strength of their love
- ‘My face in thine eye, mine appears’ – staring into each other’s eyes – parallel
phrasing – mirror quality of their perfect reflection – joy they relish in the shared,
mutual experience of love
Structure: what is interesting?
- ‘Thou and I/ Love so alike’ – enjambment links the unity of the lovers with the
perfection of their love, leaving no space between the lovers and their love – love forms
a perfect whole, they are a perfect mix
- Final rhyming couplet ‘I’ ‘die’ – definitive conclusion of the strength of their
love/perfect spiritual unity/ mutual fulfilment
- Aubade – celebrating joyfully waking up with a lover – reflects on the awakening of their
souls in mutual spiritual love
That’s so John Donne…
Final conceit – logic that is typical of Donne – sets out his argument that things that perish are
not mixed equally, but that the lovers, in their divine, superior quality, are
Themes:
Love
,Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’)
Content:
First explores a series of impossible tasks to expose the futility of the quest of searching for a
beautiful faithful woman.
Aim:
Aims to present women as doomed due to their inherent infidelity – general criticism of
human fallibility
Tone:
Assertive, serious, mocking, hopeful, cynical, impatient
Striking moments of sound and rhythm:
- ‘Go and catch a falling star’ – sets out impossible tasks as he begins the argument
of the impossibility of finding a beautiful woman who is faithful – emphasis to the
imperatives (‘go’ ‘get’) – stressed syllables – magical feel to the opening line
heightens sense of impossibility
- ‘Singing’, ‘stinging’ – complete foot and feminine rhyme – lingering feel/longing –
wants to find a faithful woman
Context:
a) ‘Get with child a mandrake root’ – get a mandrake pregnant – screaming plant –
associated with witchcraft, madness – absurdity/exaggerated quality – speaker directly
addressing the addressee – humorously challenging the reader to perform impossible
tasks in order to assert the view that beautiful women are never faithful
b) ‘Teach me to hear mermaids singing,/ Or to keep off envy’s stinging’ –
mermaids – mythological half-fish, half-women who lured men to their deaths with their
singing – falsehood of women – ‘envy’ is real however – cannot be prevented – wry
comment that it is equally impossible to overcome jealousy as it is to hear mermaids
singing
Evocative imagery:
- ‘Ride ten thousand days and nights’ – immense journey – hyperbole with a
mythical/fairytale quality – stressed foot ‘nights’ – draws out time, emphasising the
extra distance and time one could go to no avail – ‘Till age snow white hairs on
thee’ – so much time passing that you will have age, yet despite ‘All strange
wonders that befell thee’, the addressee will not find a faithful woman – abundance
of experience throughout the journey
- ‘And swear,/’ – forceful verb of truthfulness – cynical, ironic categoric truth that there
are no honest women – ‘Nowhere/’ – significance of the absence – cynical – isolated on
its own even further by the enjambment – speaker cannot find anyone, and there are
no honest women anywhere – ‘Lives a woman true and fair’ – qualifying comment
(‘and fair’) – beautiful women are full of deceit
- ‘Yet she/ Will be/ False, ere I come, to two, or three.’ – stressed foot (‘false’)
emphasises the meaning of the word, she would’ve slept with someone else before he
even made it next door – caesural pause at the end of the line is witty, an afterthought
– dramatic bitter certainty that she will have slept with multiple men (some see this as
misogynistic) – ‘two, or three’ – once she’s slept with one man it no longer matters –
she is simply dishonest
Structure: what is interesting?
- Song – ironic – implies conventional ideas of love – lyrical, sweet, romantic, beautiful –
however, it is infused with bitterness – lyrical quality of the varying line lengths gives
an ironic tone
- Final rhyming triplet of each stanza – logic of the exaggerated, dramatic argument –
lack of dispute – resolution in the speaker’s voice despite the irony/wit
That’s so John Donne…
Doesn’t not feature the characteristic metaphysical conceit so much, but does play on the
exaggerated use of comparison to present the falseness of women – beautiful women
Themes:
Women, love, cynicism, contempt
,
, The Sun Rising
Content:
Addresses the sun, castigating its interruption of the perfection of him and his love in bed
together – a lament at daybreak for the interruption of lovers in their world of private bliss –
aubade – central image of love as the centre of the world – love’s ability to transcend time
Aim:
To amuse and yet convey the value of her company/ the beauty of the privacy of their love/
love’s perfection.
Tone:
Frustrated, praising and comical, amusingly impudent, accusatory (to the sun) to present his
frustration at having to part with her
Striking moments of sound and rhythm:
- ‘Busy old fool’ – castigates the sun for disturbing the lovers – trochaic inversion –
harsh, plosive insult – direct address to the sun, dramatic opening –
conversational/speaking tone – personifies the sun as a meddling old man
Context:
a) Reverses the tradition of Elizabethan love poems which commend the sun, comparing it
to a woman’s beauty
b) ‘Indias of spice and mine/… lie here with me’ – East and West Indies – love has
transformed the world so that its riches are condensed in their love – mistress
embodying the riches of the world – bedroom/love is a magical microcosm of the exotic
riches of the world
c) ‘This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.’ – he defeats the sun by saying
their bedroom is the centre – plays on Ptolemy’s/Copernicus’ view of the world – poem
settles into calm intimate space – centre of the bed is warmest
Evocative imagery:
- ‘School-boys and sour prentices’ ‘go tell court-huntsmen’ ‘call country ants’ –
mocking of those bound by time – working obligations to be up early – the lovers are
above this, so shouldn’t have to be unwillingly risen – satirical and mocking of the
public world – private life is superior – forceful imperatives and alliterative consonant
sounds – exuberant speaker
- ‘Why should’st thou think?/ I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink’ –
speaker can close his eyes to block out the sun’s light – diminishes/dismisses the sun’s
strength (‘thy beams, so reverend and strong’) – mocking of the sun’s arrogance
through direct address – poetic inversion, scornful, sarcastic tone, heightened by
rhyming couplet – second line diminishes sun’s stature even further – swagger in the
tone, ‘cl’ alliterative sound
Structure: what is interesting?
- ABBA CDCD EE – starts each section talking about the mundane rising of the sun, then
elevates it to grand themes/speculations on love
- ‘She’s all states, and all princes I’ – places enormous importance on her – she is
everyone and everywhere – balanced, mirrored sentence – pronouns enclose the
sentence, emphasising the meaninglessness of everything outside the relationship –
repetition (‘all’) in the hyperbolic statement – heightens their elevated status
- ‘Why should’st thou think?’ – poetic inversion, scornful, sarcastic tone – moments of
questioning the sun’s supposed power stand out
That’s so John Donne…
Uses his logic and wit to present the power of love by subverting domestic/mundane ideas
into grand ideas about love
Themes:
Love, praise, frustration, poignancy of love (power, ability to transcend time)
Content:
Celebration of joyfully waking up with a lover – their souls have woken up together – explores
a new life together, one that is created by central, mutual spiritual love – aubade – love is a
spiritual bond
Aim:
Contemplates the special quality of their love, aiming to show the elevated experience of
being in love.
Tone:
Reflective, conversational, informal, disbelieving, bewondered
Striking moments of sound and rhythm:
- ‘Let’ – repetition of the passive imperative – dismissive of the world outside the
relationship/its irrelevance
Context:
a) ‘Seven sleepers’ den’ – Catholic legend – the lovers weren’t really awake/present in
life before they found each other – woken up to a new Christian experience – love
described with religiosity – spiritual divinity of the love
b) Final conceit – densely argued point that they will continue loving each other
eternally/their love will give them immortality – ‘What ever dies was not mixed
equally’ – idea of equal elements within us, playing on Aristotle’s idea of heavenly
bodies and sublunary bodies, which were not mixed equally so cannot achieve stability
– ‘none do slacken, none can die.’ – the lovers together become a perfect mix of
elements – they achieve perfect stability – love becomes immutable/love will give them
immortality
Evocative imagery:
- Love ‘makes one little room an everywhere.’ – their love contains everything in it;
a safe microcosm in the turbulent macrocosm of the outside world – sense of control in
their love, which is not constricting, but defining – end stop gives sense of finality –
assured conclusion of the strength of their love
- ‘My face in thine eye, mine appears’ – staring into each other’s eyes – parallel
phrasing – mirror quality of their perfect reflection – joy they relish in the shared,
mutual experience of love
Structure: what is interesting?
- ‘Thou and I/ Love so alike’ – enjambment links the unity of the lovers with the
perfection of their love, leaving no space between the lovers and their love – love forms
a perfect whole, they are a perfect mix
- Final rhyming couplet ‘I’ ‘die’ – definitive conclusion of the strength of their
love/perfect spiritual unity/ mutual fulfilment
- Aubade – celebrating joyfully waking up with a lover – reflects on the awakening of their
souls in mutual spiritual love
That’s so John Donne…
Final conceit – logic that is typical of Donne – sets out his argument that things that perish are
not mixed equally, but that the lovers, in their divine, superior quality, are
Themes:
Love
,Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’)
Content:
First explores a series of impossible tasks to expose the futility of the quest of searching for a
beautiful faithful woman.
Aim:
Aims to present women as doomed due to their inherent infidelity – general criticism of
human fallibility
Tone:
Assertive, serious, mocking, hopeful, cynical, impatient
Striking moments of sound and rhythm:
- ‘Go and catch a falling star’ – sets out impossible tasks as he begins the argument
of the impossibility of finding a beautiful woman who is faithful – emphasis to the
imperatives (‘go’ ‘get’) – stressed syllables – magical feel to the opening line
heightens sense of impossibility
- ‘Singing’, ‘stinging’ – complete foot and feminine rhyme – lingering feel/longing –
wants to find a faithful woman
Context:
a) ‘Get with child a mandrake root’ – get a mandrake pregnant – screaming plant –
associated with witchcraft, madness – absurdity/exaggerated quality – speaker directly
addressing the addressee – humorously challenging the reader to perform impossible
tasks in order to assert the view that beautiful women are never faithful
b) ‘Teach me to hear mermaids singing,/ Or to keep off envy’s stinging’ –
mermaids – mythological half-fish, half-women who lured men to their deaths with their
singing – falsehood of women – ‘envy’ is real however – cannot be prevented – wry
comment that it is equally impossible to overcome jealousy as it is to hear mermaids
singing
Evocative imagery:
- ‘Ride ten thousand days and nights’ – immense journey – hyperbole with a
mythical/fairytale quality – stressed foot ‘nights’ – draws out time, emphasising the
extra distance and time one could go to no avail – ‘Till age snow white hairs on
thee’ – so much time passing that you will have age, yet despite ‘All strange
wonders that befell thee’, the addressee will not find a faithful woman – abundance
of experience throughout the journey
- ‘And swear,/’ – forceful verb of truthfulness – cynical, ironic categoric truth that there
are no honest women – ‘Nowhere/’ – significance of the absence – cynical – isolated on
its own even further by the enjambment – speaker cannot find anyone, and there are
no honest women anywhere – ‘Lives a woman true and fair’ – qualifying comment
(‘and fair’) – beautiful women are full of deceit
- ‘Yet she/ Will be/ False, ere I come, to two, or three.’ – stressed foot (‘false’)
emphasises the meaning of the word, she would’ve slept with someone else before he
even made it next door – caesural pause at the end of the line is witty, an afterthought
– dramatic bitter certainty that she will have slept with multiple men (some see this as
misogynistic) – ‘two, or three’ – once she’s slept with one man it no longer matters –
she is simply dishonest
Structure: what is interesting?
- Song – ironic – implies conventional ideas of love – lyrical, sweet, romantic, beautiful –
however, it is infused with bitterness – lyrical quality of the varying line lengths gives
an ironic tone
- Final rhyming triplet of each stanza – logic of the exaggerated, dramatic argument –
lack of dispute – resolution in the speaker’s voice despite the irony/wit
That’s so John Donne…
Doesn’t not feature the characteristic metaphysical conceit so much, but does play on the
exaggerated use of comparison to present the falseness of women – beautiful women
Themes:
Women, love, cynicism, contempt
,
, The Sun Rising
Content:
Addresses the sun, castigating its interruption of the perfection of him and his love in bed
together – a lament at daybreak for the interruption of lovers in their world of private bliss –
aubade – central image of love as the centre of the world – love’s ability to transcend time
Aim:
To amuse and yet convey the value of her company/ the beauty of the privacy of their love/
love’s perfection.
Tone:
Frustrated, praising and comical, amusingly impudent, accusatory (to the sun) to present his
frustration at having to part with her
Striking moments of sound and rhythm:
- ‘Busy old fool’ – castigates the sun for disturbing the lovers – trochaic inversion –
harsh, plosive insult – direct address to the sun, dramatic opening –
conversational/speaking tone – personifies the sun as a meddling old man
Context:
a) Reverses the tradition of Elizabethan love poems which commend the sun, comparing it
to a woman’s beauty
b) ‘Indias of spice and mine/… lie here with me’ – East and West Indies – love has
transformed the world so that its riches are condensed in their love – mistress
embodying the riches of the world – bedroom/love is a magical microcosm of the exotic
riches of the world
c) ‘This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.’ – he defeats the sun by saying
their bedroom is the centre – plays on Ptolemy’s/Copernicus’ view of the world – poem
settles into calm intimate space – centre of the bed is warmest
Evocative imagery:
- ‘School-boys and sour prentices’ ‘go tell court-huntsmen’ ‘call country ants’ –
mocking of those bound by time – working obligations to be up early – the lovers are
above this, so shouldn’t have to be unwillingly risen – satirical and mocking of the
public world – private life is superior – forceful imperatives and alliterative consonant
sounds – exuberant speaker
- ‘Why should’st thou think?/ I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink’ –
speaker can close his eyes to block out the sun’s light – diminishes/dismisses the sun’s
strength (‘thy beams, so reverend and strong’) – mocking of the sun’s arrogance
through direct address – poetic inversion, scornful, sarcastic tone, heightened by
rhyming couplet – second line diminishes sun’s stature even further – swagger in the
tone, ‘cl’ alliterative sound
Structure: what is interesting?
- ABBA CDCD EE – starts each section talking about the mundane rising of the sun, then
elevates it to grand themes/speculations on love
- ‘She’s all states, and all princes I’ – places enormous importance on her – she is
everyone and everywhere – balanced, mirrored sentence – pronouns enclose the
sentence, emphasising the meaninglessness of everything outside the relationship –
repetition (‘all’) in the hyperbolic statement – heightens their elevated status
- ‘Why should’st thou think?’ – poetic inversion, scornful, sarcastic tone – moments of
questioning the sun’s supposed power stand out
That’s so John Donne…
Uses his logic and wit to present the power of love by subverting domestic/mundane ideas
into grand ideas about love
Themes:
Love, praise, frustration, poignancy of love (power, ability to transcend time)
