The Sun Rising by John Donne
Author: metaphysical poet(wrote about world around him) wife- Anne More married in secret.
1. Busy old fool, unruly sun, -establish relationship+tension among three entities of the poem:
speaker, lover and sun.
-tone of contempt+disdain[scold sun for waking him+lover]
-speaker disparagingly personifies the sun as a "busy old fool"
who is "unruly" in the face of some authority (them)
2.Why dost thou thus, - apostrophizes the sun by addressing the sun directly
3.Through windows, and through curtains call -questions why sun has to shine through windows+wake them
on us? -alliteration :Cacophonous sound,explosive +harsh sound
Highlight his frustration +contempt for the sun
4.Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run? rhetoric: Why must lovers days be controlled by you?
Seasons=passing of time
5. Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Contradiction. Oxymoron ‘saucy and pedantic’
[saucy-sexually suggestive in bold way,pedantic- perfectionist.
Wretch-unhappy person, chide=scold]
Wrestling with own feelings about sun: resents bcs brings
daylight[separation with lover] but acknowledges nb of sun
6.Late school boys and sour prentices, Listing of four kinds of people is deliberate as all would be
considered insignificant in society[not king-country ants]
7. Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride, -Lover and him so much more nb and significant- arrogant.
-We are the centre. Go bother lowly groups of people
8. Call country ants to harvest offices,
9. Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, End couplet, fully rhymed, affirms that love is beyond weather,
place+time of year.
It never changes+is unaffected by division of the clock
10. Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags Contrasts frivolous duties of sun with timeless realm of love.
of time. Hour: metaphor comparing the immutability(unchanging) nature
of love to the ∆ing nature of sun with its units of time
-aphorism, statement which is presented as truth]-he’s convicted
of his love, not one part of him that doubts his love
11.Thy beams, so reverend and strong Reason for speaker’s hostility towards sun becomes clear-rising of
sun means he must leave his lover.
Suggests power of sun is limited -reverend(sacred)
12. Why shouldst thou think? Why do you think your beams are so sacred