Assignment : paper no : 101 literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration periods.
Assignment : 101- Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration periods.
∆ Personal Information:
This blog is part of an Assignment of sem 1 ,paper no :101, Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration periods,Assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English ,MKBU.In this Assignment I am dealing with the topic of Analysis of "The Sun Rising" by John Donne.
Name : Maya Batiya
Roll no : 32
Enrollment no :5108230003
Course : M.A.sem-1
Paper no :101
Paper code :22392
Paper name : Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration periods
Topic : Analysis of "The Sun Rising" by John Donne.
Submitted : Smt.S.B.Gardi, Department of English ,MKBU.
Email:mayajbatiya2003@gmail.com
#~ Analysis of 'The Sun Rising' by John Donne.
∆ Introduction :
In "The Sun Rising," the speaker wants to bend the rules of the universe. Rather than allowing the sun's "motions" across the sky to govern the way the speaker spends his time, the speaker challenges the sun's authority and claims that love gives him (the speaker) the power to stay in bed all day with his lover.
∆ About John Donne :
John Donne, (born sometime between Jan. 24 and June 19, 1572, London, Eng.—died March 31, 1631, London), leading English poet of the Metaphysical school and dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London (1621–31). Donne is often considered the greatest love poet in the English language. He is also noted for his religious verse and treatises and for his sermons, which rank among the best of the 17th century.
Metaphysical poetry is a poetry that is not worldly or common but it goes beyond the physical world.it is a very intellectual form of poetry as it explores the spiritual world. The main theme of Donne’s metaphysical poetry is philosophical and the main subjects of Donne’s poetry is love, religion, God, beauty and faith. Metaphysical poetry took its birth at the age of Renaissance and John Donne is the most prominent among the metaphysical poets. He is widely considered the founder and father of metaphysical poetry. Samuel Johnson later created and popularized the term Metaphysical18 poetry in an 18th century. He used the term in his book “Lives of the most eminent English poets”, which is a critical appraisal work comprise biographies of 52 poets.
∆ Introduction to John Donne’s Poem "The Sun Rising" :
John Donne’s poem “The Sun Rising” originally its spelling is “The Sunne Rising” is a metaphysical love poem published in 1633. The poem is comprise thirty lines and three stanzas, and full of metaphysical imagery, conceits, and wits of John Donne. This is one of the most beautiful poems in which the speaker wants to change the rules of nature for lovers. He wants complete privacy that even the nature interruption is unbearable for him, in this way he gives more importance to love above nature and other practices of life.
Throughout the poem, the speaker is trying his level best to prove his love strong and beautiful among other things in the universe. The speaker develops the idea that his love is powerful and all the universe exist within his love. The speaker personify the sun by insulting words “busy old fool”, because he wants to give more power and strength to his love. The sun also shows passing of time, so the poet is insulting the sun that love is not in your control. Instead of interrupting lovers go and call the people arguably less important for instant, boys late for school, restful apprentices and farm workers.
∆ Analysis of "The Sun Rising" :
The poem The Sun Rising by John Donne comprises three stanzas. We give explanation of each stanza below.
• Explanation of First Stanza:
The poem sets in the speaker’s bedroom where the sun interrupts the privacy of the poet and his love, so there is a conflict between the speaker, his lover and the sun. The speaker personifies the sun as a “busy old fool” who has no rule in front of some authority. The sun is initially insulted before being challenged. The sun visits the bedchamber of the poet and his beloved, and that is unmannered and foolish thing to interrupts lovers privacy. At the age of Donne “you” was used in the formal and polite way while “thou and thee” was used for calling someone in an informal manner.
The speaker by calling the sun thou means that the sun is an inferior being. In the third and fourth lines the speaker is asking a rhetoric question, in actual the speaker is not interested to know about his answer. Instead, he wants to tell the sun that do not interfere in the affairs of lovers, bother lovers in their bedroom is unruly. Then the speaker says that it’s not possible for lovers to go according to your motion, because love is beyond limits and barriers. Go and call the people whose works are not much important, you need to wake up late school boys, huntsman and farmers to go for work. The speaker is further describing powers of love and says that love is beyond time, weather, place and time of year. It never changes, it never affected by the division of clocks.
• Explanation of Second Stanza:
In the second stanza of The Sun Rising poet is again asking a rhetoric question, he addresses the sun that what make you that your light is so awesome. All it takes to me is a blink of an eye and can easily fade your shine in the clouds in seconds just by closing his eyes but I don’t want to waste my time by doing that. The speaker doesn’t want to close his eyes because in that way he will also miss the beautiful sight of his beloved. Now go and come and come the next day late with the news of kings and queens, the news about the Indian spices, and all the other beautiful things of the world.
At the end of the second stanza the speaker is of the view that all the riches, beauties and specialties of the world lie beside him on his bed. It means that the speaker is of the opinion that his beloved is most precious among worldly things and his love is more powerful than all the powers of the world.
• Explanation of Third/Last Stanza:
In the last stanza of the poem the speaker continue parsing his beloved, he says my beloved is the whole world to me. The speaker says that when we are together we find ourselves so rich and happy that we need nothing else. “She is all states, and all prices I” means that they feel very satisfied and happy in one another company. He considers his beloved the whole world in the same way he considers himself a king because he has the possession of his beloved. His beloved is more important for him and all the honors and riches of the world is nothing for him. The speaker says that we don’t need wealth or gold, which Alchemist claims to make from junk metal.
“Thou, sun, art, half as happy as we”
The speaker says that the sun is not happy because he is alone so that he is half happy. At the end of the last stanza the tone of the speaker becomes companionate, he says that you are now old, but it is still your duty to keep the earth warm. He befriend the sun and invite the sun to his bedroom; the speaker says that if you shine over us, you will shine over every part of the world, because his bedroom is the center.
∆ The Sun Rising Themes:
The three main themes in “The Sun Rising” are love, hyperbole, and the sacredness of mutual love.
• Love:
The speaker insists that the sun has no power over perfect love, reasoning that, since the lovers are the world, the sun will fulfill its duties by remaining in the bedroom; he outrageously asserts that “Nothing else is,” testifying to the superiority of a love that is “all alike.”
• Hyperbole:
The power of hyperbole, the trope chosen by Donne to embody the separateness of love, lies in its forcible straining of the truth and its ability to go beyond truth to express an ideal.
• The sacredness of mutual love:
Ultimately, the poem asserts neither that earthly love mirrors heavenly love nor that mutual love that is both physical and spiritual is the only valid perspective on love. The serious portrayal of love in this poem is but part of the rich variety of human experiences that Donne offers readers of his poetry.
∆ Rhyme Scheme of the Poem" The Sun Rising" :
The Sun Rising is comprised of three regular stanzas; each ten lines long and follow a line-stress pattern of 4255445555.
Rhyme Scheme of the poem The Sun Rising follows as:
· Lines one, five, and six are metered in iambic tetramete frorm
· Line two metered is metered in dimeter form
· Lines three, four, and seven, eight, nine, and ten are metered in pentameter form
The rhyme scheme of The Sun Rising in each stanza is as: ABBACDCDEE
∆ Conclusion:
The poem The Sun Rising is remarkable for its boldness of thought and originality of execution. The way in which the sun is made to appear as an unwelcome guest and the way in which he is finally allowed to stay in the bedroom of the lovers, are the most striking examples of Donne's poetic inventiveness and ingenuity. The poet after establishing the supremacy of love, permits the sun, (in a very patronizing manner, of course) to stay in his bed-room.
In this poem, the lover chides (rebukes) sun-rising because it disturbs the lovers. Love is above the sense of time. It knows no hours, days or months. The sun should not call on lovers; it should call on school apprentices, courtiers and county ants. Love knows no season nor clime. The whole world has contracted into the lover's bedroom. Thus the sun need not go round the earth, it should, only pay a visit to the lover's bedroom and it would meet the whole world there.
∆ References :
“John Donne.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/biography/John-Donne. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.
Sana. “Summary and Analysis of the Sun Rising by John Donne.” Literary English, 12 Aug. 2023, literaryenglish.com/summary-and-analysis-of-the-sun-rising-by-john-donne/.
Words : 1644
Images : 3
Thank you..😊
