The Sun Rising

SUMMARY

Like all of us in the morning, John Donne starts out angry at the sun. He feels way too good to be bothered by its shine and tells it to get lost and go bother other, lesser people. He tells the sun that love isn't some slave to the sun's movements or the changing of the seasons, so shove off, thank you very much.

RHYMME STRUCTURE

The rhyme scheme of each stanza (ABBACDCDEE) is a quirky mix of two types of sonnet forms, the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. The first four lines follow the Petrarchan sonnet and generally set up the new argument or image, including rhetorical questions. The next four conform to the sort of sonnets becoming popular during Donne's lifetime, and they extend the image and provide some sort of proof or answer for the argument. The final couplet, being an easier, more obvious rhyme, seals what was previously stated in a strong and memorable way. The final lines of the poem demonstrate this sense of closure.

FORM

The form of this poem doesn't have a specific name, but it is very formal. The poem is constructed of three ten-line stanzas and each stanza is constructed the same way.

Lines 1, 5, and 6 of each stanza are iambic tetrameter, meaning they have eight syllables with four of them stressed. Line 2 is in dimeter, meaning it has four syllables, with two stressed. The rest of the lines are the more standard iambic pentameter—ten syllables, five stresses.

SYMBOLS: THE SUN

Donne uses the sun in a couple of different ways. In the first stanza, it's the passage of time. The sun marks the passing of hours, the changing of the seasons. And the passage of time is an enemy to his love. He wants to stay stuck in this loving moment forever. The sun also represents power, strength, and authority. It represents a call to get up and get to work.

•Line 4: The central argument of the first stanza is summed up in his question: Does the sun (and time and seasons) hold power over love?

•Line 9-10: John Donne's answer? No. "Love [...] no season knows, nor hours, days, months."

•Line 11-13: Donne argues that he is more powerful than the sun because he "could eclipse them with a wink." So he doesn't have to get out of bed and get to work.

SYMBOLS: THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING

One medieval idea that carries over into Renaissance art and literature is the Great Chain of Being, the notion that every living thing has a specific rank in the divine scheme of things. Think of it as an early take on the class system. Donne makes references to people and things all up and down the chain of being: schoolboys, apprentices, hunters, royalty, farmers, even ants. He is arguing that the whole scope of humanity is subject to the sun's power, but (you guessed it) he and his lover are exempt. Their love breaks free of that chain.

•Lines 5-8: This is a fairly classic Donne list of different classes of people. The next lines then claim that love (namely, his love) transcends all of them.

SYMBOLS: COSMOLOGY

The 17th century was a pretty interesting time to be alive. They didn't have all this newfangled technology. They didn't have everything all mapped out. They were discovering and figuring things out all the time. This poem (like a lot of Donne's poems) draws on the popular scientific beliefs and discoveries, some of which were brand new, and some of which were holdovers from medieval times.

•Line 17: The "Indias of spice and mine" refer to India (in Asia) and the newly established West Indies. New and exotic products were being brought in daily on ships from these strange worlds, which made the world more accessible to folks like Donne, but also opened up new doors of discovery, making the world seem ever larger.

•Line 30: The bed becomes like the earth and the boundaries of the room form the sun's new and limited sphere in the poet's imagination.

SYMBOLS: SIGHT AND BLINDNESS

Most of the sight imagery is in the second stanza, when Donne talks about the sun's light beams, "reverend and strong." But Donne argues that for all their strength, they can be put out if he simply closes his eyes. Obviously, this can't be literal; the sun is still there. But popular philosophers, including Rene Descartes, were considering the subjective nature of reality—do we make things exist simply by seeing them? Does the sun exist if we can't see it, or is it all in our minds? (Hint: it's not.)

•Line 13: Donne claims that he could "shut out" the sun's rays by closing his eyes.

•There's also the "awwww-how-cute" line when Donne claims first that he refuses to shut his eyes because he couldn't stand not to look at his beloved even for a millisecond. He also claims that his love's radiant beauty could blind the sun. Does the sun have eyes? Can it be blinded? We'll get back to you on that.

•Line 14: Donne just can't close his eyes because he would "lose her sight so long"

•Line 15: The speaker demands that the sun look at his lady, "if her eyes have not blinded" the sun.

THEMES: LOVE

Love in "The Sun Rising" is immediate and romantic; remember, he is writing this just as he is waking up with his beloved. It's also the sort of love that makes you feel invincible, like you could throw down with an MMA champ or the Hulk. After all, we're talking about the kind of love that makes the speaker feel like he can pick a fight with the sun. The dude literally thinks that he and his lover are the center of the universe

1.In the first stanza, how does the speaker show that he believes himself superior to others because of his love?

2.What are some of the ridiculous claims about love that the speaker makes?

3.Much of the imagery in the second stanza has to do with sight and seeing. What might that tell us about the sort of love the speaker has?

4.What do you think of the speaker's claim in the final stanza? What does that tell you about how his love has affected him?

5.Do you think it's okay to be boastful about love?

THEMES: COMMUNITY

We aren't just individuals—we are part of a larger society, and John Donne won't let you forget it. Still, "The Sun Rising" is a lot about a speaker's desire to (even temporarily) escape the responsibilities and restrictions of the outside world and just experience his love. You know, without all the meddling from friends and family.

1.What different elements of society show up in the first stanza? Do you see a pattern to the speaker's list?

2.What do you think is more important: society (meaning economies, governments, scientific discovery) or individual love? How would you argue for or against the speaker in this regard?

3.Do you think Donne's illicit marriage might have to do with his feelings about society's encroachment on love? How so?

THEMES: DISATISFACTION

Sure, "The Sun Rising" is a love poem, but you'll notice the speaker never actually talks to his main squeeze. Instead, he's whining at the sun to leave him alone. Mostly, that's because he doesn't want the night to end. He doesn't want to rejoin the world. Hey, speaker, we never said love was easy. It's full of disappointments, so Shmoop's advice is to buck up.

1.What if you pretended the sun was, say, his mom? How much would his language change?

2.If love is, as he says, impervious to time, how do you think he feels when the sun rises? What happens to his love, really?

3.By the end, the speaker has changed his mind and wants the sun to shine. Is he settling or does he really think he has won the argument? In other words, is he satisfied?

LOVE QUOTE 1

"Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?"(4)

It's a rhetorical question, but maybe one that we should try to answer: does love have to answer to the demands of time? Or does it last forever, no matter how old and wrinkly you get.

LOVE QUOTE 2

"Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time." (9-10)

The speaker thinks that love will always stay the same, that nothing in the outside world can affect love. We're sure he'd like to believe that, but is that really true? Donne also commonly uses lists when he wants to make a point, and we must say—it's a pretty effective device.

LOVE QUOTE 3

"Thy beams, so reverent and strong

Why shouldst thou think?

I could cloud and eclipse them with a wink

But that I would not lose her sight so long" (11-14)

Yeah, if you can really convince yourself that the sun just disappears when you wink, you're ego-tripping. But hey, it's all out of love, as line 14 reminds us. And it also calls to mind those other philosophers of love, Aerosmith: "I don't want to close my eyes...."

LOVE QUOTE 4

"Nothing else is." (22)

The shortness of the line and the reversed stress pattern make this line hit the reader hard. And it should. Because it's really weird. He's so in love that literally nothing else exists.

LOVE QUOTE 5

"This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere." (30)

FYI, the sun is approximately 93 million miles from the earth. So it probably doesn't literally sit ten feet away from the speaker's bed. Not that we're in to bursting bubbles or anything.

COMMUNITY QUOTE 1

" [...] go chide

Late school-boys and sour prentices,

Go tell court huntsmen that the King will ride,

Call country ants to harvest offices." (5-8)

The speaker wishes the sun would leave him alone and go bother other members of the community. He is condescending toward the outside world—while they are bound by time and seasons, he and his lover are not. His angry tone is also conveyed by the harsh consonant sounds.

COMMUNITY QUOTE 2

"She's all states, all princes I." (21)

This metaphor shows that the speaker believes his little private world transcends the public world. Who needs politics, baby, when I've got you? That reversed syntax structure is called a chiasmus, by the way, if you want to get technical.

COMMUNITY QUOTE 3

"Princes do but play us; compared to this

All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy." (23-24)

In the speaker's view, not only is the rest of society irrelevant, it's also fake. This squares with someone who is infatuated, though. How could anyone think of doing paperwork when they've found true love?

DISSATISFACTION QUOTE 1

"Busy old fool, unruly sun" (1)

We've all said something along these lines to our alarm clocks. We can picture the speaker waking and getting upset that he'll have to get up and at 'em. And his frustration is made even more emphatic by the trochee that starts off the line.

DISSATISFACTION QUOTE 2

"Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains call on us?" (2-3)

This is really just a development of the first line, but it specifically accuses the son of deliberately taking away his happiness. Hey, buddy, it's not like the sun meant it.

DISSATISFACTION QUOTE 3

"Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,

In that the world's contracted thus." (25-26)

Sure, this quote seems like it's happy boasting, but remember that the speaker is now trying to convince the sun to linger around and let them stay in bed forever. The whole argument is getting more desperate—he knows no matter what he says, it's only a matter of time until they will have to get up and face the real world—with clothes on, hopefully.