CC-IV : John Donne The Sun Rising Explanations

 

1." She  is all states , and all princes, I, 

      Nothing else is.

      Princes do but play us: compared to this,

      All honour's mimic; all wealth alchemy".

- These lines are extracted from John Donne's metaphysical love poem "The Sun Rising". Here, the poet-lover asserts the self-sufficiency of the world of love in contrast to the worthlessness of the world.

        The poet-lover establishes the superiority of the world of love by using the metaphysical conceits which are based upon the knowledge of geography As well as medieval alchemy. According to the first one, his beloved is all the kingdoms('states') put together, while he stands for the prince of all prices who enjoys it. He seeks to suggest that out of their shared passion and feeling, they could create a world of their own which is as good as the geographical world. It may even be better than that. In other words, their Kingdome of love appears to the poet-lover as a world in itself, i.e. the in miniature, an epitome of the world. The princes of the world appear to be false ('play') princes compared to him. After all, he claims to be original because of enjoying the beauty and charm of his beloved which others may be deprived of. Again, in comparison with the glory and dignity("honour") of love, every other honour including the royal one is but an imitation('mimic') because it may be devoid of the glow and warmth of love. Side by side, all wealth except the wealth of amorous feeling is but a counterfeit ("alchemy"). the medieval alchemy could turn base metal into gold, but that was in essence base metal in comparison with real gold, i.e. their love.

            In these lines, the poet-lover clearly reveals the supremacy of the world of love as against mere dross of the rest of the world through the use of striking metaphysical conceits which may appear to be an exaggeration but seem to be true to an ardent lover. The lines also bring out one of an important issues of metaphysical poetry, i.e. the relation between microcosms (the world of love) and macrocosms(the world at large).

 

2. "Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clyme,

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

-These lines are extracted from John Donne's metaphysical love poem "The Sun Rising". Here, the poet-lover defines the nature of true love as an independent force.

        The speaker-lover does not rebuke the sun for having arrived too soon, but its shining through windows and curtains on the lovers in the bed. He observes that love is a self-sufficient force which does not depend on any particular season for its advent or growth. It is independent of climactic conditions. In other words, love knows no time and space. It transcends the considerations of hours, days, months, seasons which are the tattered pieces of cloth ("rags of time"), i.e. the shreds into which time is subdivided. these subdivisions of time are subject to the ravages of time, but love is not so. The lover means to say that whereas the rising sun has a meaning for the worldly people(for example, the school boys, workers, peasants, court-huntsmen) who run to activates in accordance with 'motions' of the sun, love is free from any bondage to time. It suggests that lovers attain a state of timelessness, an eternity obviously in terms of consummation of love in the union of souls which is beyond the worldly time, i.e. the jurisdiction of the sun.

            In these lines, the lover emphatically declares / proclaims the eternity of the world of love which is not governed by worldly time and space. Love is not subject to decay and death. These lines are reminiscent of the same idea as expressed in Shakespeare's Sonnet no.116- " Love's not Time's fool".

3. "Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

    This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere".

    -These lines constitute the concluding part of John Donne's metaphysical love poem "The sun Rising" . Here, the poet-lover finally establishes the superiority of the world of love over time in a logical manner.

        The poet-lover says that they represent the entire world which has contracted to the size of the bed of their love-making. He in an ironical patronizing manner asks the sun to be so old as to require rest("thine age asks ease") since time immemorial it has to go round the vast globe. His point is that if the divine duty of the sun is to go round the world, it could as well revolve round the bed of the lovers, since the bed is the center of the universe and walls constitute the sphere. Obliviously, here the speaker-lover adopts the Ptolemaic solar systems of the universe(according to which the earth stands static while the sun moves round it) in order to prove his point of view. To be precise, the lover asks asks the sun to shine on them alone. If it shines on them, it will be shining on the whole world, because the lovers' bedroom is the microcosm of the macrocosm as it were.

            In these lines, the poet-lover asserts the supremacy of love over time. One is immediately reminded of the  same idea as expressed in Donne's another poem "The Good Morrow"-"Foe love, all love of other sights controls/ And makes one little room, an everywhere".

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