The Sunne Rising

Upon first reading of John Donne’s ‘The Sunne Rising’ (Leonard 1998:463), it is obvious the poem is a love poem and it appears that the concerns of the poet are to show the speaker’s love for his mistress. Showing this them of love was obviously one of the poets concerns but the poem could also be seen as a statement of something greater. At the time Donne wrote this poem it was unconventional. The poem would have been seen as outrageous and very different from any poems written by previous poets. This is because of the nature in which Donne treats the sun. In previous poetry, God, Worldly beings and nature had all been worshipped and respected. All these things were considered rational, powerful and above everything else. Donne tests these theories in his poem by considering love as irrational, something that cannot conform to such a heavenly power as the sun. He is playing with the idea that maybe there is something greater than what men have previously considered, and that this something may be love.

The poem shows a man’s love and affection for his mistress. The masculine speaker of the poem is obviously in love and besotted by his mistress. The poet expresses this love by using a poem that in the first stanza app

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The sun has awoken the speaker and his mistress whilst they are in bed as lovers. The accented syllables, for example ‘Why dost thou thus’ (Leonard 1998:463), create a strong tone for the poem, allowing the reader to feel the anger or annoyance that the speaker of the poem is feeling. The first, being the language of the poem. Similar to the way in which an annoyed teacher would demand an answer from insolent student.

The second stanza of the poem shows the romance in the speaker and his adoration for his mistress. The use of the word ‘rags’ (Leonard 1998:463) indicates that time is considered of little value to the lovers. Nothing can compare to the love that they share. It is in the next few lines of the first stanza it becomes evident as to why the speaker feels so badly towards the sun, ‘Why dost thou thus, through windowes, and through curtaines call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?’ (Leonard 1998:463). The way in which you may tend to speak to another person, not a figure such as the sun!

There are various methods used by the poet to create the tone of the poem. The terms ‘unruly’, ‘sawcy’ and ‘pedantique’ (Leonard 1998:463) also help to personify the sun and give it a human identity. ‘Translating into modern terms, city apprentices, courtiers, and the countrey ants stand for industry, government and primary production – in short, for human society.

Donne was obviously concerned with writing a poem that would express how powerful and irrational love can be.

In the first stanza the speaker is annoyed with the sun for its intrusion into the lover’s bedroom. The use of commas to instill pauses into the sentences creates short, quick statements, so the dialogue of the first stanza is read with the sense of being annoyed or disgruntled.

Approximate Word count = 1823
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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