“The Sunne Rising.” John Donne. How to Deconstruct Donne’s Devices.

Figurative language at its best.

.

***

Metaphysical Poetry is a 17th-century genre, pioneered by John Donne, and characterized by ingenious, witty, and philosophical exploration of love, religion, and existence. It uses complex, unconventional metaphors (conceits¹), paradoxes, and colloquial language to blend emotion with often clever analysis. Sunne Rising is a paradigm of all of those qualities, especially in its witty, defiant, if not insulting, attitude toward the sun. It is also a useful compendium of figures of speech. used brilliantly; poetic elements are enclosed in asterisks. The poem consists of three 10-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme abbacdcdee. I have chosen to use the original spelling.

***

***

In a variation on an *aubade* (a “dawn song” or poem that focuses on lovers parting at sunrise), the first three lines, in fact, the first three words (Busie old foole) set the speaker’s defiant *tone*² for the poem, *personifying*³ the sun as a foolish busybody, interfering with (call on us) , presumedly, the speaker and his lover as they lie in bed (through windowes and curtaines). He confronts the sun with the *rhetorical question*⁴, are lovers’ days (motions) subject to your schedules (seasons)? He urges the nagging (Sawcy pedantique wretch) sun to go elsewhere, bothering (go chide) a list of *analogous*⁵ early risers: school boyes, prentices, huntsmen, farmers (*metaphorically*⁶, countrey ants), coincidentally providing a brief picture of 17th century morning life. Finally, unlike the diurnal⁷ and seasonal divisions of the sun, love is a singularity (all alike) and knows no season , nor clyme,/Nor houres, dayes, months, *accumulation*⁸ for effect, which metaphorically are just the tatters (rags) of time’s cloth.

The speaker continues hyperbolically to denigrate the sun, while aggrandizing his love. The sun’s beames are not as strong and worshipful (reverend) as he thinks. It would only take the blink (winke) of an eye to eclipse and cloud them, except that he wouldn’t lose sight of his love for even that small amount of time (so long). He then extends the hyperbole⁹, issuing a challenge in continued defiance: If her eyes have not blinded thine, the sun would see that the world’s wealth (Indias of spice and Myne[s]) are no longer where they had been but now lie here with mee, as do all of kings of the world now lay here in one bed.

In the final stanza, the hyperbole continues: She is all States, and all Princes, I, The second line is the most affirmative and hyperbolic statement yet, blunt in its simple four syllables, which admit no discussion: Nothing else is; they are a microcosm of the world. Compared to their love, Rulers (Princes), honor, and wealth are pale imitations. The sun is only half as happy as they are since the entire universe (world) is contracted into them (thus). He then dismissively states that the sun is old (age) and should rest (ease), and since its function (duties) is To warme the world, that’s done in warming us. /Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere. They are now the center of the universe (This bed thy center is), and the sun now revolves (spheare) around them.

A wonderful example of Metaphysical Poetry’s wit and use of conceit.

***

1. A metaphysical conceit is an elaborate, extended metaphor that links two strikingly dissimilar, far-fetched things (e.g., lovers to a compass) to explore abstract, intellectual, or spiritual concepts. Popular in 17th-century, it uses logic, wit, and intense imagery—rather than conventional emotion—to analyze love, death, and faith.  ↩︎
2. the poet’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, reader, or themselves, functioning as the poem’s emotional “voice” or mood. ↩︎
3. attribute a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman. ↩︎
4. a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer. ↩︎
5. comparable in certain respects ↩︎
6. a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable ↩︎
7. daily; of each day ↩︎
8. A stylistic device that lists words with similar qualities to emphasize a point. ↩︎
9. exaggerated statements ↩︎

***

Subscribing only means that you will receive a notice when I publish a new post.

***

***