Reading 'THE GOOD-MORROW' by John Donne

The Good-Morrow

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I

Did, till we lov’d? were we not wean’d till then?

But suck’d on country pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the seven sleepers den [1]?

’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies bee.

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desir’d, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking soules,

Which watch not one another out of feare;

For love, all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little roome, an every where.

Let sea-disoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,

Let us possesse one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eyes, thine in my appears;

And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,

Where can we finde two better hemispheres

Without sharp North, without declining West[2]?

What ever dyes, was not mixt equally [3];

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

[Footnote 1: According to a Christian legend, seven young preachers of Ephesus, in the second century, fell in the wrath of the Persian monarch, Decius. They took refuge from the persecution in a cave, and miraculously slept for some two hundred years when the entrance of their cave was walled up by their pursuers. When they woke up, the preachers found that Christianity is established throughout the Roman empire.

Footnote 2: Their hearts are like the two hemispheres of the world, inseparably fixed with each other. But unlike earth’s hemispheres they do not present contrasts; theirs are forever warm and sunny with the passionate love they cherish.

Footnote 3: According to scholastic medical theories of yore, a mixture where the ingredients are not mixed in equal proportion becomes distorted. But since the poet and his beloved are engaged in a mutual love, their love will never die.]

What I Feel:

   The term 'Metaphysical' was coined ('meta' means 'beyond' + physical)  by Dr. Samuel Johnson in his  essay 'Abraham Cowley' to designate a group of poets of the English Renaissance. Donne, however, was the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.  His disciples include George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, etc. Elizabethan lyrics and Metaphysical lyrics both take as their chief theme love. But while Elizabethan lyrics are much sentimental and impulsive, Metaphysical lyrics are intellectual and rational. Furthermore, a much restraint in versification is observed in Metaphysical lyrics. The marked characteristic of such poetry is the use of 'conceits', i.e., a striking parallel between two apparently dissimilar things of situations. The Metaphysical excelled in all branches of knowledge--commonplace, trivial, philosophical, ecclesiastical, scholastic, medical, etc., and thus from various sources they drew their comparisons. Metaphysical conceits are novel, witty and at their best startlingly effective. 

   One of Donne’s most-read poems ‘The Good Morrow’ is a typical metaphysical poem dealing with love. The poet as a lover bids good morning  to the awakened souls of his and his beloved’s souls. Their souls are awakened from sleep and is now consumed with the intensity of love. Their love is not simply practiced, but it is a kind of mutual love which cares for each other. And this oneness of love triumphs over all earthly mutability, and shines in mutual attachment for ever. There are some fine examples of Metaphysical conceits in the poem, e.g., the comparison between the hearts of two lovers and two hemispheres of the earth.