John Donne

Hi there. I've been studying Donne's poetry and I like to discuss his poems with you who are interested in Donne's poetry. I start this discussion by "The Good-Morrow"

THE GOOD-MORROW.


I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?
'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear ;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ;
Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west ?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

<http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/goodmorrow.htm>

Some notes from RPO (University of Toronto)

4] the seven sleepers' den. According to a popular legend, seven young Christians of Ephesus, in the second century, took refuge from Roman persecution in a cave, and miraculously slept for some two hundred years when the entrance of their cave was walled up by their pursuers.

13] other. Some MSS. read "others," but "other" is an old plural form.

19-21] The scholastic doctrine is that what is simple (that is, one, or though two, always alike, not a compound) cannot be dissolved or die; ''equally" means qualitatively the same.

First of all this is love poem by Donne, and the persona of the poem talking to his beloved explains the experience of loving by different allusions ametaphors as JBI said

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JBI

Some notes from RPO (University of Toronto)

4] the seven sleepers' den. According to a popular legend, seven young Christians of Ephesus, in the second century, took refuge from Roman persecution in a cave, and miraculously slept for some two hundred years when the entrance of their cave was walled up by their pursuers.

---

Here, refering to the past and the time before falling in love and experincing love, Donne compares the time he was not in love to these seven sleeping for about 200 years and their awakening to his awakening and rebirth. This is one the metaphors in the poem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JBI

19-21] The scholastic doctrine is that what is simple (that is, one, or though two, always alike, not a compound) cannot be dissolved or die; ''equally" means qualitatively the same.

---

The lover tries to explain that as they are one so they won't die and the love makes them eternal.

I wonder what other metaphors Donne uses in this poem. Can you help to find them!

HE compares themselves to the newborn child.

I read John Done voraciously and I have read many of his poems, and most are love poems.

He was a metaphysical poet and the characteristics ofch John Donne is they gather ideas from various sources and could weave out of them very interesting and touching poems.