The Sun Rising

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1633

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Sun

The sun is a universal symbol used over the centuries to represent a range of qualities including order, power, majesty, royalty, the divine. It symbolizes life-giving force, heat, and energy. It is the central symbol in this poem and carries some of those meanings, but the speaker is also keen—in his characteristically mischievous manner—to devalue and undermine the sun and to place love as its superior since love partakes of eternity in a way that the sun, which marks the rhythms of time, does not (Stanza 1). The sun is thus “unruly” (Line 1); that is, it is disruptive to the lovers’ desire not to be disturbed, and also unruly in that it is unwilling or difficult to be ruled. The speaker thus has to set the sun right about its place vis-à-vis the lovers, which he does by elevating their status to immense proportions; they are themselves an entire world (Stanza 2). This allows him finally to acknowledge, in the final stanza, the vital, life-giving role the sun offers. He emphasizes the sun’s role of supplying warmth, both to the world and to the lovers (Line 28). In this context, warmth suggests sexual energy the lovers enjoy. The sun’s function of providing warmth is presented as part of its “duties” (Line 27), which suggests a role of service to the lovers, rather than--as in Stanza 1--trying to rule over them.

Ordinary Folk

The ordinary people mentioned in the poem symbolize the mundane realities of life that the lovers, by means of their priceless love, have soared beyond. When the speaker tries to shoo the sun, he tells it to go and bother these less fortunate folk irrevocably tied to the rhythms of time. They are identified in Stanza 1 as schoolboys and apprentices, “court huntsmen” (Line 7) and “country ants” (Line 8). Learning in school, serving an apprenticeship, hunting, and farming are all mundane activities that are essential drudgery enabling human society to function. The symbolic contrast between such folk and the lovers illustrates the contrast between time and eternity--one of the poem’s themes.

Transcendence

The motif of transcendence underlies the poem throughout. It is transcendence through love. The sun may be rising in the sky but the true soaring can only happen through love, which belongs to a different dimension of life. The poet can thus metaphorically look down from a great height, far superior to the “rags of time” (Line 10), which cannot touch him and his love--except on his own terms. The lady whom he loves transcends all other beauty and riches of the world and even outshines the beams of the sun. Transcendence, then, is what is real; “Nothing else is” (Line 22). Compared to transcendence through love, worldly riches are just a pretense--a fake.