Kim Wallace: Blinded By the Light - An Explication of John Donne's "The Sun Rising"

Blinded by the Light - An Explication of John Donne's "The Sun Rising"

John Donne’s, “The Sun Rising” is a descriptive love poem detailing the intensity of two lovers’ passion for one another. Donne’s images are effectively created as he personifies the sun as the antagonist of the presumably male speaker of the poem.

The speaker in “The Sun Rising” goes through a range of emotions throughout the poem. The first line appears to be one filled of anger: “Busy old fool, unruly Sun,”. That is next followed by a question: “Why dost thou thus, through the windows and through curtains, call on us?”. 1 The speaker of the poem appears to have been irritably woken from sleep by the sun. The fact that the sun has to go through the windows and curtains suggests that the speaker, and whomever he is with do not want to be woken up. The speaker continues the questioning in the following line: “Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?”. 2 Here the speaker clarifies that he is with a lover, and asks why the sun has to control the time in which lovers can be together? The next line the speaker gets considerably angrier with the sun: “Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide”. 3 The speaker has now moved to insulting the sun by calling the sun an insolent, miserable master. Philip C. Kolin suggests that this is in reference to the power of the sun that is eventually taken over by the power of the lovers. 4 The end of this stanza results in the speaker turning full circle to his original point about lovers having to spend their time together according to the sun’s schedule: “Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.”. 5 Instead of asking a question here, the speaker makes an affirmative statement; almost as if the speaker, in his initial rage with the sun, has come to the conclusion that love does not abide by nature’s rules. Love does not know climate, season or any aspect of time. Here, Kolin points out that the ‘rags of time’ are in reference the idea that if love were to clothe people, the clothes would be luxurious. 6

In the next stanza, the speaker shifts the mood to discuss the woman he is with. “Thy beams so reverend, and strong why shouldst thou think? I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink but that I would not lose her sight so long.”. 7 Here the speaker appears to mock the strength of the sun. He would shut out the sun by simply closing his eyes except for the fact he does not want to stop looking at his lover for even such a short period of time. Donne creates a metaphor between the human eye and clouds. The act of closing the eye becomes the same as a cloud shifting over the sun to block it out. After suggesting the beauty of his lover by explaining his resistance to close his eyes, the speaker then tells the sun: “If her eyes have not blinded thine…”. 8 His lover is so eyes are so powerful that they could out shine even the sun. Donne creates the female lover into an image and beauty through these last five lines. As well, he verifies the intensity of the love between the two people because he does not describe much about her physical beauty, but focuses directly on her eyes. This suggests an image of two people gazing deeply into one another’s eyes. After the allusion to the power of his lover’s gaze, the speaker moves to ask the sun a type of favor: “Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday, And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay."”. 9 The speaker tells the sun to go ask for the kings he saw yesterday, and the sun will find out that they are all within one bed. The speaker is suggesting that the entire world lies in this one bed. This strengthens the idea that the love shared between the two lovers is almost kingly, and that their bed is their kingdom.

The last stanza of the poem details the intimacy of the lover’s relationship more closely. “She’s all states and all princes I”. 10 This line possesses a certain amount of sexual innuendo. The speaker is suggesting that his love interest is every state. In this she can be compared to the ‘states’ in the sense of division of land. Correspondingly, the speaker has suggested that he is all princes, and all princes reside within their respective state. According to Ilona Bell, this line refers to Donne’s views on women, and how this line suggests a man dominating a woman. He is the prince and she is the land. 11 In the next lines the speaker goes as far to say that the things thought of as important in this world are actually just a joke in comparison to his love. “Princes do but play us; compared to this, all honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.”. 12 In furthering describing the passion of the two lovers the speaker suggests that their love outweighs the power of the sun. “Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be to warm the world, that's done in warming us.”. 13 The sun is so old that it is time for it to retire, and the responsibility of warming the world is already taken care of with the warmth of the two lovers. Here again, Donne is exhibiting some sexual connotation as the warmth from the two lovers is from their bodies coming together. These last two lines, “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.", describes the sun shining onto the lovers because the lovers, as previously indicated, are the entire world. The sun will shine everywhere on them, the bed will be the core and the walls are the outer sphere of their world. 14 Therefore, the lovers will continue to ‘warm the world’, and the sun will shine to provide light. As a result, the lovers do not need to get out of bed as a result of the sun rising.

Kolin’s article on “The Sun Rising” emphasizes more on the idea of the sun as a representation of a political and economical figure interfering with the two lovers. 15 His focus is more so on the power relations between the lovers and the sun, and how the poem exhibits a switch in the control of power from the sun to the lovers. 16 However, he does stress similar points to the intensity shared by the two lovers and produces effective arguments as to the sincerity of Donne’s work in “The Sun Rising”. On the other hand, Ilona Bell’s work on the role of women in the works of Donne suggests that Donne perceives women as sexual objects and his “The Sun Rising” is a poor attempt by a man to court a woman. 17 Bell’s article seems to suggest that the love exemplified throughout the poetry is none existent, and the references to love are only to a subordinate woman. This is contradictory to the literary evidence as she assumes the reactions of the woman involved.

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References

Bell, Ilona. “The Role of a Lady in Donne’s Songs and Sonnets”. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 23, No. 1.Winter 1983. The English Renaissance. January 30, 2006.

Donne, John. “The Sun Rising”. Poems of John Donne. Vol. I. ed. E.K. Chambers. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 7-8. February 14, 2006.

Kolin, Philip C. “Love’s Wealth in ‘The Sunne Rising’”. The South Central Bulletin. Vol. 43, No. 4. Winter1983. Studies by Members of SCMLA. January 30, 2006.