THE SUN RISING - JOHN DONNE

Busy old fool, unruly sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide

Late school boys and sour prentices,

Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,

Call country ants to harvest offices,

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

Thy beams, so reverend and strong

Why shouldst thou think?

I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,

But that I would not lose her sight so long;

If her eyes have not blinded thine,

Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,

Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine

Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.

Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,

And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay.

She's all states, and all princes, I,

Nothing else is.

Princes do but play us; compared to this,

All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.

Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,

In that the world's contracted thus.

Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be

To warm the world, that's done in warming us.

Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.

The sun Rising is a genuine evidence of metaphysical poetry written by Donne as the pioneer of this school. The poem deals with the theme of love. Here the lover portrays his beloved superior to the sun rising.

The lover addresses to the sun as “Busy”, “Old fool” and “Unruly” simply it peeps through the windows and curtains into their bedroom. The lover wants to make clear that the season and time of lovers can never be governed by the sun. The lover instructs the rising sun to go and apply its force to late school children, workers and employees of the court. Lovers don’t accept the concept of time because months, years, days, hours are just the rags of time. The lover wants to convey a message to the Sun that lovers have nothing to do with either rising or setting of the sun.

The lover is not ready even to believe that the rays of the sun are powerful. It is possible for him to create an eclipse on the sun simply by closing his eyes, but he doesn’t do that because even for a moment he cannot bear losing the sight of his beloved. It is lover’s conviction that there is more shine in the eyes of his beloved and if she looks at the sun with her eyes than the sun would be dazzled. The lover mentions that after taking a round of the earth, the sun would realise that real India of spices is in his bedroom; in the form of his beloved.

The lover compares his beloved with all the kingdoms, states, princes and princesses. One round of the earth would be enough for the sun to realise that the centre of the earth is his beloved. Giving light to his beloved is equal to giving light to the whole world. The lover is of the opinion that the sense of honour is just a mimic compared to his love for his beloved. Even wealth is nothing but a chemical compared to love. So, the lover and his beloved are not ready to accept worldly rules and regulations set by the sun.

The present poem is an attempt of John Donne to establish the place of love higher than the place of the sun. The metaphysical images employed by the poet are “Sun”, “States”, “Princesses”, “India of Spices” and so on. It is an experiment of Donne to use images from the field of politics and nature for the expression of love.

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