Too Much Love: Love Versus Time in John Donne's "The Sun Rising"

"The Sun Rising" dramatizes the conflict between love and time, as represented by the rising sun. The speaker, who is irritated by the rising sun’s intrusion into his and his lover’s bedroom, addresses the sun in an irritated and peremptory manner (Roston 13). Through this address, the lover introduces the idea that the love that exists between himself and his lover is not subject to the dictates of the sun, or, more generally, time. The speaker then goes on to assert his power over the sun and to illustrate its lack of authority over the two lovers. As the speaker discusses the power and wealth of himself and his lover, the idea of a microcosm1 begins to emerge, in which the speaker and his lover are shown to possess all the elements and structural principles that are found in the macrocosm2 of the earth (Ray 317). By asserting that he and his lover are a ‘world unto themselves’, the speaker provides yet another reason for why he and his lover should not have to ‘obey’ the dictates of the sun. This idea of the speaker and his lover in their bedroom existing as a microcosm is expanded upon in the third stanza. The end result of the speaker’s address to the sun is that it is insinuated that it is actually the sun – or, more generally, time – that should be taking orders from love.

The language the speaker uses to address the sun in line 1 – “Busy old fool, unruly Sun” – while effective at communicating the speaker’s irritation with the sun, can also be seen as the speaker’s first step towards asserting dominance over the sun. This notion is furthered by the pun on “sun” as if it were “son” (Ray 315) so that the sun is pictured as being an unruly, delinquent son; the speaker, in turn, is perceived as being a dominant, father-like figure. This negative image of the sun is deepened in lines 2 and 3 as the speaker describes the sun as a spy; thus, furthering the image of the sun as a “busy-body”. After having painted the sun in a negative light, it is only then that the speaker openly questions the sun’s control over himself and his lover by asking: “Must to thy motions season’s run?”(l. 4). In saying this, the speaker introduces the notion that those who are in love may actually be exempted from the demands of the sun; and, in turn, that love has its own time scheme independent of the ordinary world’s. To further distinguish between those that should and should not have to be subordinate to the sun, the speaker describes the types of people that the sun should be concerned with: “late school-boys”(l. 6), “sour prentices”(l. 6), “court huntsmen”(l. 7), and “country ants”(l. 8). Through this description, the speaker conveys a strong sense of scorn towards people who are enslaved by time and also suggests that he and his lover are free from, and superior to, such worldly demands (Ray 316). In saying this, the speaker also begins to hint at the idea of him and his lover being outside of the ordinary world. The speaker furthers the idea of love being outside of the demands of time in lines 9 and 10 as he explains that since love does not change depending on the season or time, it should not have to proceed according to the “rags” of time. “Rags”, in being used to refer to time, suggests that time is worthless or meaningless; this word choice can be seen as the speaker’s increasing sense of superiority over time.

This sense of superiority and power over the sun carries through to the second stanza which opens with the speaker warning the sun that it is folly for it to think of its beams as “reverend” (l. 11) and “strong” (l. 11) when it is possible to simply “cloud them with a wink” (l. 13). The speaker further asserts that for the sun to be noticed by him at all, it must rely on the beauty of the speaker’s lover who entices him to keep his eyes open and not simply block the sun out (Roston 15). After asserting his dominance over the sun, the speaker instructs the sun to observe, as it makes its journey around the earth, whether “both th’Indias of spice and mine/ Be where thou left’st them, or lie here with me” (ll. 17-18). In line 17, the India “of spice” is referring to the East Indies, while the India “of mine” refers to the West Indies (Ray 317). In saying this, the speaker is suggesting that the sun may find that the speaker’s lover has all the sweetness and worth of the Indies, or, in other words, that his lover is the source of all value. In holding that his lover is the source of all wealth, the speaker begins to develop the idea of himself and his lover acting as a microcosm for the greater macrocosm of the earth. To further this idea, the speaker goes on in lines 19 and 20 to assert that, in its travels, the sun will also find that all the rulers or the world are also resting in the lovers’ bed. In saying this, the speaker is implying that all the power of the world is located in the bed as well.

The speaker firmly establishes himself and his lover in their bedroom as a microcosm for the greater world in the third stanza when he states, “She’s all states, and all princes I;/ Nothing else is” (ll. 21-22); in other words, she is the territory of the whole world and he is the ruler of it all. In taking the stance that “nothing else is”, the speaker is clearly stating that their microcosm of love is vastly superior to the outside world. To expand on this statement, the speaker posits in lines 23 and 24 that he and his lover are the true rulers of the true world - “Princes do but play us…” (l. 23) - and that all earthly honor and wealth is empty and false: “All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy” (l. 24). After establishing the world of his lover and himself as independent from, and vastly superior to, the outside world, the speaker condescends to offer the sun the “favor” of warming their world when he says, “Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be/ To warm the world, that’s done in warming us” (ll. 27-28). Through this statement, the sun is being encouraged to treat the bedroom as the earth; if it does so, it fulfills its duties of warming the earth simply by warming the speaker and his lover. Furthering the idea of the microcosm, the speaker goes on to state, “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere” (l. 29); thus implying that since the lovers’ world is everything, shining there inherently means shining everywhere. The speaker ends by placing the sun in its new sphere, with the lover’s bed as its center and the bedroom walls as its sphere. This ending, with the sun confined to the microcosm of the lovers, implies that the couple’s love is the center of all reality and that, therefore, all things – including time – are subservient to it. Therefore, as the speaker asserts at the beginning of the poem, love does not run according to the dictates of time but, instead, it is time that must act in accordance with love.

References

Ray, Robert. A John Donne Companion. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990.

Roston, Murray. The Soul of Wit: A Study of John Donne. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.