Commentary on The Sun Rising Essay

Paying close attention to language, tone and action, write a critical appreciation of The Sun Rising.

In order to unpack the methodology of Donnes love poems, it is necessary first of all to expound on his concept of love. Quite contrary to the poetry of his day, Donne postulates that love may not only be of divine or lofty conception but, in his estimation, truly seen in the combination of carnal enjoyment of country pleasures a la The Flea to intangibles seen in heavenly realms of angels and heavenly bodies. Therefore, The Sun Rising may be the quintessential definition of true or perfect love. That said, it can now be noted that Donne argues his point through the metaphysical conceit, which evidently, he is the foremost exponent of. Therein, he utilises the most preposterous, exaggerated and non complimentary metaphors to unfold often playfully- his concept of love. The argument itself then become so explosive that it quite unexpectedly implodes within itselfwhich quite ironically is the intention of the author.

Quite literally, The Sun Rising relates the preposterous metaphor of the sun to the love (inclusive of both lovemaking and the feelings of the lovers) shared by the personae in the poem. The speaker seems to chastise the sun for rising and thereby interrupting or bringing to end their time together. He then goes into an apostrophe when he speaks to the sun as a rival entity, commanding it (obviously playfully) to do anything but interrupt them. In the end, unable to chase away the sun, he facetiously commands it to shine only on the lovers even as it shines everywhere.

The lyricism of the poem is evident from the outset. There are three stanzas of ten lines each which are made up of iambic dimeter, followed by iambic tetrameter, and then the customary iambic pentameter. The rhyme sequence follows a perversion of the Petrarchan sonnet which he often playfully mimics and mocks seen here in ABBACDCDEE (there is no repeated ABBA quatrain). Like Petrarch, his subject is love but quite appropriately, the improvised structure telegraphs his penchant for the unorthodox both in form and theme (as stated, his view of love was unorthodox compared to the celestial love relations versified by Petrarch and Shakespeare in their sonnets). The informality and playfulness creates a lyrical flow that befits the theme of love Donne style.

Another striking technique is the preposterous conceit within this poem. He unfolds his case for the perfection of their love at that given moment by suggesting they are in love as they make love. Nothing on earth, or in the heavens (typified by the sun) can contest or compare with their love. The sun imagery here contains his regular motifs: time, spheres, exploration and metaphysics (in a modern context). Thus, the sun becomes an intruder who must be commanded to leave them (preposterous in itself for he knows the sun will not be commanded but this is the beginning of the argument). The sun is described as a busy old fool who is an unruly and saucy wretch. While these are derogatory words, their facetiousness is inescapable. The sun is none of these things nor is it his to command, but, for the purpose of elevating their love (and his unconventional view of love), he appears to chastise for interrupting the magic moment shared by the lovers. The tone therefore is defiant, bordering on arrogant but its absurdity and frivolity must not be missed.

Further, it is his characteristic usage of spheres and orbs to convey perfection that must also be pointed out in this poem. The sun by definition is a sphere; conventional Seventeenth Century astrology highlights the sun as encompassing the earth on it circular journey around the earth; and since his lovers eyes are spheres and they are locked in union, his vision of her, at this time is perfection. Their love (a combination of physicality and emotion) is described as greater than the sun thy beamsI could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, but I would not lose her sight. Just as closing the eyes means blocking out the sun, closing his eyes means temporarily losing sight of his lover, something much worse than losing sight of the sun. Here, the vigour of their love is self evident and the tone rightly euphoric; such profound love is indeed worth celebrating.

Coupled with the shape are the motifs of exploration and time. The entry and movement of the sun indicates the passage of time. Time is not an enemy in this instance introduced in the metonymy must to thy motives lovers seasons run?; the seasons refer to the passage of time throughout the year and on this specific instance as the sun emerges. Clearly his annoyance at the interruption does not signal the end of the romance as his words are directed to the sun, not his lover; indeed, his words for her continue to be celebratory: she is all states and I all princes. Despite everything, he is still the lord of the land (the lover) and will undoubtedly be so for some time the sun (time) is half as happy as we.

This invocation of the imagery of countries and their princes creates the other usual motif of exploration. In the poem, the sun has been commanded to leave them and go about its usual compass exploring all the lands of the world, from mundane school yards to far lands like th Indias and all the kings (metonymy for lands) whom thou sawst yesterday. These wanderings to these exotic locales pale in significance to their love. The perfection of their love is then summarised in the conclusion of the argument this bed thy centre is. Their love, at that moment is perfection: these walls thy sphere or compass of the sun the compass is a sphere, a sphere is perfect, their love supersedes a sphere, their love is perfect. Indeed, in Verse 2, all the exotic places and people are inconsequential to their love for all here in one bed lay.

But finally, in this concluding statement, Donne, as he is wont to do, implodes the very conceit that he has stretched so far. He has a new command for the sun which contradicts his earlier command to go tell court huntsmen. He no longer desires the sun to go, he now ironically calls on it to stay and shine here to us almost perhaps to worship at their shrine to love instead of its wonderings over exotic locales. He follows this up with the correct analysis that the sun is ubiquitous anyway. This admission implodes his earlier argument that the sun is inferior to them. It is admission that as the sun is perfect, true love is also perfect or equal to the sun, a heavenly body. Or, it may conversely be his admission that true love need not make these preposterous claims as it is perfect, a universe unto itself, just as he has made their love (this bed) or the woman, the centre of his universe.