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    The Sun Rising by John Donne

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    dacde
    The speaker addresses the sun, telling it to stop disrupting their time with their lover by shining through the windows. The speaker says love knows no time, season, or boundaries. The speaker says they could eclipse the sun with a wink but doesn't want to stop seeing their lover. The speaker declares their lover encompasses all people and places, and they themselves are all princes, with nothing else existing. The bedroom is the sun's center and sphere, so by shining on the lovers it warms the entire world.

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    The Sun Rising by John Donne

    Uploaded by

    dacde
    1K views6 pages
    The speaker addresses the sun, telling it to stop disrupting their time with their lover by shining through the windows. The speaker says love knows no time, season, or boundaries. The speaker says they could eclipse the sun with a wink but doesn't want to stop seeing their lover. The speaker declares their lover encompasses all people and places, and they themselves are all princes, with nothing else existing. The bedroom is the sun's center and sphere, so by shining on the lovers it warms the entire world.

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    The speaker addresses the sun, telling it to stop disrupting their time with their lover by shining through the windows. The speaker says love knows no time, season, or boundaries. The speaker says they could eclipse the sun with a wink but doesn't want to stop seeing their lover. The speaker declares their lover encompasses all people and places, and they themselves are all princes, with nothing else existing. The bedroom is the sun's center and sphere, so by shining on the lovers it warms the entire world.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    1K views6 pages

    The Sun Rising by John Donne

    Uploaded by

    dacde
    The speaker addresses the sun, telling it to stop disrupting their time with their lover by shining through the windows. The speaker says love knows no time, season, or boundaries. The speaker says they could eclipse the sun with a wink but doesn't want to stop seeing their lover. The speaker declares their lover encompasses all people and places, and they themselves are all princes, with nothing else existing. The bedroom is the sun's center and sphere, so by shining on the lovers it warms the entire world.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    At a glance
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    The poem is a playful exchange between the speaker and the sun in which the speaker prioritizes his romantic relationship over the sun's daily duties.

    The poem is about the speaker ordering the sun to warm his bed so he can stay in bed all day with his lover instead of getting up for work.

    The speaker views his relationship as more important than anything else, including time, seasons, wealth, and social status.

    The Sun Rising

    John Donne

    Busy old fool, unruly sun,


    Why dost thou thus,
    Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
    Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
    Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
    Late school boys and sour prentices,
    Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,
    Call country ants to harvest offices,
    Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
    Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
    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;
    If her eyes have not blinded thine,
    Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,
    Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
    Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
    Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
    And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay.
    She's all states, and all princes, I,
    Nothing else is.
    Princes do but play us; compared to this,
    All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
    Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,
    In that the world's contracted thus.
    Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
    To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
    Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
    This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.
    "The Sun Rising" is a poem written by the English poet
    John Donne. Donne wrote a wide range
    of social satire, sermons, holy sonnets, elegies, and
    love poems throughout his lifetime, and he
    is perhaps best known for the similarities between his
    erotic poetry and his religious poetry.
    Much of his work, including "The Sun Rising," was
    published after his death in the 1633
    collection Songs and Sonnets. In "The Sun Rising," the
    speaker orders the sun to warm his bed
    so that he and his lover can stay there all day instead of
    getting up to go to work. The poem's
    playful use of language and extended metaphor
    exemplifies Donne's style across his work,
    erotic and religious alike.
    Summary

    Hey sun, you old, disruptive busybody, why are


    you shining past the windows and
    closed curtains to pay an uninvited visit to me and
    my girlfriend? Do lovers really have
    to structure their schedules around your
    movements across the sky? You rude,
    inflexible, and insensitive jerk, go scold boys who
    are late to school and apprentices
    who are sulky about their early morning. Go tell
    the king's hunting party that the king
    is about to ride out on a hunt, and urge lowly farm
    workers to start their harvesting
    duties. Love, in all its forms, is above the influence
    of seasons and weather. It is also
    above the influence of hours, days, and months,
    which, unlike love, wear out like old
    rags as time passes.
    Why should you think your beams are so
    worshipped and strong? I could block them
    out by closing my eyes, except that I wouldn't
    want to stop looking at my lover that
    long. Assuming that her eyes aren't so bright that
    they've blinded yours, go check, and
    tomorrow evening tell me whether both the East
    Indies and West Indies are where you
    left them, or whether they are right here next to
    me. Ask to see the kings you saw
    yesterday, and you will hear that they are all lying
    here in this bed.
    My lover is every country, and I am every prince.
    Nothing else exists. Princes only
    pretend to be us; compared to our love, all honor
    is a cheap copy, and all wealth is a
    futile attempt to attain riches. You, sun, should be
    half as glad as we are that the whole
    world fits here in the bedroom. Your old age
    demands that you take it easy. Because
    your job is to keep the world warm, you can do
    your job by keeping us warm. By
    shining here on us, you can shine everywhere; this
    bed is your center, and the
    bedroom walls are the outside boundaries of the
    solar system.

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