“The
Sun Rising” is one of the love poems written by John Donne. The poem is
addressed to the sun and attempts to express the poet’s dissatisfaction over
the rising or presence of the sun in the day as it is a disturbance to him and
his lover. The degrading and colloquial language, the irritated and unpleasant
tone, accompanied with vivid imagery through the use of conceits, highlights
Donne’s untraditional depiction of love, his belief in the supremacy of love,
his concept of microcosm and the great weight he gives to his beloved and
himself and his willingness to take action if any external disturbances arise,
interrupting their marital bliss. Donne’s methods and concerns in poetry are
typically to do with getting through to the reader the existence and
significance of metaphysical love and the fact that to a lover the single most
precious thing in life is his/her beloved. Thus, the language, tone and imagery
used reflects Donne’s intellectual, yet spiritual and romantic take on love.
The
overall use of language in the poem attempts to degrade and demean the Sun.
Donne makes use of colloquialism which gives a conventional and simple touch to
the poem, making it easy for the reader to understand his unusual concept of
love. The title, “Sun Rising”, would typically suggest the glorification and
superiority of the sun as it is “rising” and it brings light and thus enables
sight and activity to take place. However, the poet calls the sun “unruly” and
a “busy old fool”. The poet calls it unruly as the rays of the sun are taken by
him and his lover as a disturbance and interruption to their intimacy. The
rising of the sun means the end of night and the coming of morning. The poet
contradicts himself in using a paradox later on in the first stanza as along
with calling the sun unruly, he refers to it as a “saucy pedantic wretch”. The
word pedantic shows that the sun follows a routine and time. However, calling
it unruly depicts it as irresponsible and not time bound. This, therefore, shows
how for Donne the sun’s rising is a disturbance but for the sun itself, it is
only doing its job and following its routine. Furthermore, the poet calls upon
the sun to go shine on others such as “late school boys and sour prentices” and
“court huntsmen”. He regards these people, their life and activities as
insignificant in relation to the expression of love and this shows his
determined thought that only him and his beloved need privacy and intimacy.
Donne
refers to the sun’s rays as “reverend and strong”, but then uses the word
“eclipse” to show how he feels he can overpower the sun by covering it with a
wink of the eye. This shows Donne’s typical method of exaggeration when
comparing concepts. He exaggerates his strength over the sun to such an extent
that it seems as if he is capable of shutting out the sun, an element of
Nature, whenever he pleases.
No comments:
Post a Comment