The Sun Rising

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1633

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

Poets have often written about the sun in the context of their lady loves. In the 14th century, Italian sonneteer Petrarch addressed Sonnet Number 118 in his collection Il Canzoniere to the sun. He appeals to it in reverential terms, asking it not to depart because he would no longer be able to see his beloved. The poem begins, “Almo sol” (Life-giving sun). Although his poem is also a direct address to the sun, Donne is not about to show the sun that kind of respect, so he begins with an insult: “Busy old fool, unruly sun” (Line 1). Donne follows Petrarch, however, in ascribing to his lover all the beauty and riches of the world.

It was also common in the Renaissance for poets to compare the brightness of their lover’s eyes to the sun or other celestial body. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, Romeo says Juliet’s eyes are brighter than the stars. Also, when he sees a light at the window of the balcony and Juliet appears, Romeo exclaims, “[i]t is the East and Juliet is the sun!” (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 3). Petrarch also refers to his love, Laura, in cosmic terms: Her eyes shine with an uncommon radiance and she is “a heavenly spirit, a living sun” (Sonnet 90, translated by Anthony Mortimer). Donne approaches this notion with an original and playful twist. Not merely content to identify his lover’s brightness with the sun, he uses the image as a cudgel to taunt the sun. In the second stanza, Donne twice downgrades the brilliance of the sun’s beams, culminating in the jibe, “[i]f her eyes have not blinded thine” (Line 15), which offhandedly makes the traditional point about the lover while also telling the sun it is not as bright as it likely thinks.

It is also not uncommon in poetry for lovers, happy in each other’s arms at night, to complain about the arrival of dawn: It comes too soon. In this respect, the relevant poem in the context of “The Sun Rising” is not one by Petrarch and other Renaissance poets, but the Roman poet Ovid. In Book 1, Poem 13 of his Amores, Ovid directly addresses the sun as Aurora--the goddess of the dawn--and his tone is as strikingly irreverent as Donne’s. The speaker asks Aurora to delay her coming because he and his love are enjoying their nighttime embraces. “What’s your hurry? You’re not wanted” (Line 31), Ovid writes (translation by John Svarlien). In fact, the sun comes too early for everyone: “You are the first to see the farmer in the fields doubled over his hoe” (Line 15) and “[y]ou cheat little boys of sleep and pack them off to schoolmasters” (Line 17). Likewise, Donne mentions schoolboys and farmers, but he differently slants the argument. His complaint in “The Sun Rising” is not that the sun has come too early, but that it has come to the wrong place. Unlike Ovid’s accusations against Aurora, Donne’s speaker does not care if schoolboys are chided or farmers coaxed to work by the rising sun; all that matters to him—in Stanza 1—is that he and his lover should not be disturbed.

Thus, Donne in “The Sun Rising” shows he is aware of the traditional treatment of his theme but he treats it in an original manner in keeping with the confidence and belligerence he grants his speaker.

Historical Context

The term metaphysical poetry applies to a type of poetry written in 17th century England. John Donne is considered the most important of the metaphysical poets. Other such poets include George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Abraham Cowley, Andrew Marvell, and Henry Vaughan. Metaphysical poets exhibited their intellectual agility; they enjoyed playing with words and meanings, so their verse abounds in paradoxes and puns, rapid turns of thought, and unusual similes and metaphors known as conceits. For the reader, these poems are not always easy to understand and may demand some intellectual effort in puzzling out their meanings.

As Helen Gardner notes in the “Introduction” to her edition of The Metaphysical Poets (Penguin, 1971), metaphysical poetry is renowned for its “brilliant abrupt openings” (p. 22), in which a poet might address his mistress, or god, or set a particular scene. Donne’s “The Canonization,” with its first line, “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,” is an example of this, as is “The Sun Rising,” which begins, “Busy old fool, unruly sun” (Line 1). Gardner also comments that the metaphysical poets were apt to employ lines of tetrameter (eight syllables) as well as pentameter (ten syllables), and often wrote stanzas in which the line length varied and “the sense seems packed” (p. 18) into it. This is notable in “The Sun Rising” where the stanzas contain both tetrameter and pentameter and are shaped just for that particular poem.

While the metaphysical poets were greatly appreciated in their day, poetic tastes changed during the Restoration period in English literature (1660-1689), and metaphysical poetry, including Donne, fell out of fashion. It was not until the early 20th century that Donne’s poetry was rediscovered, and he exerted great influence as poets searched for new forms of expression to replace the waning late-19th century strain of Romanticism. In particular, Donne’s work was championed by T. S. Eliot.